Word.ws English Dictionary

puerile

UK/ˈpjʊə.ɹaɪl//ˈpjʊɹɪl/

puerile adjective: childish; trifling; silly.

Adjective

puerile (comparative more puerile, superlative most puerile)

  1. Childish; trifling; silly.
    • The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.1850, Thomas De Quincey, French and English Manners (originally published in Hogg's Instructor
    • From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that...1927, Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, page 79
  2. Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; compare puellile.

puerile meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

puerile in Tamil

பயனற்ற, சிறுமைத்தனம், குழந்தைகளுக்குரிய, குழந்தைமைக்குரிய

puerile in Urdu

بچکانہ, چھچھورا, خام

puerile in Bengali

শিশুসুলভ, বোকাটে

puerile in Malayalam

immature, childish, infantile
ബാലിശമായ, കുട്ടിത്തം മാറാത്ത, ബാലചാപല്യമായ, ബാലോചിതം, അപരിണത, അപക്വമായ
More languagesFewer languages
puerile in Kannada
ಬಾಲಿಶ, ಹುಡುಗಾಟಿಕೆಯ, ವಯಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಸಲ್ಲದ

Synonyms of puerile

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of puerile

Forms of puerile

comparativemore puerile
superlativemost puerile

Origin of puerile

From Latin puerīlis (“childish”), from puer (“child, boy”). By surface analysis, puer + -ile.

Words formed from puerile

Questions about puerile

What does puerile mean?
Puerile means childish; trifling; silly.
What is puerile in Tamil?
Puerile in Tamil is பயனற்ற, சிறுமைத்தனம், குழந்தைகளுக்குரிய. See Puerile meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is puerile?
Puerile is an adjective.
How do you pronounce puerile?
Puerile is pronounced /ˈpjʊə.ɹaɪl/ (UK).

Words near puerile in the dictionary

  1. puerco pibil
  2. Puerco River
  3. Puerh
  4. pueri aeterni
  5. puericulture
  6. puerile
  7. puerilely
  8. puerileness
  9. puerilism
  10. puerilisms
  11. puerilities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puerile (page history and authors); puerile (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); puerile (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); puerile (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); puerile (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); puerile (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-puerile.ogg, en-au-puerile.ogg.

Cite this entry: “puerile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puerile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.