How to use juvenile in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Juvenile means young; not fully developed. Example: “The Associated Press will not identify the suspect of the crime because he is a juvenile.”

Examples of juvenile by meaning

adjectiveYoung; not fully developed.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), often referred to by doctors today as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), is a type of arthritis that causes joint inflammation and stiffness for more than six weeks in a child aged 16 or younger.2024 September 6, David Zelman, “Understanding Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis -- the Basics”, in WebMD

adjectiveCharacteristic of youth or immaturity; childish.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis impacts the larger joints of the body and is a chronic condition.2005, Sidney Michael Trantham, “Diagnoses Commonly Associated with Childhood”, in Amy Wagenfeld, Jennifer Kaldenberg, editors, Foundations...
He indicated that Cheong should follow his actions, but Cheong was little tempted and chose not to engage in such a juvenile scene.2013, Thomas Keneally, chapter 21, in Shame and the Captives, Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, →ISBN; trade paperback edition, New...

nounA person younger than the age of majority; a minor.

Every childhood seems to have exactly such a juvenile in its midst and mists.2005, Markus Zusak, “The Kiss (a Childhood Decision Maker)”, in The Book Thief, Sydney, N.S.W.: Picador, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y....

nounA person younger than the age of full criminal responsibility, such that the person either cannot be held criminally...

If the juvenile violates the conditions of the stayed sentence, typically by committing a new offense, the court may revoke the stay and require that the offender be taken into custody.2010, Richard Lawrence, Mario Hesse, “The Juvenile Court Process”, in Juvenile Justice: The Essentials, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE...

nounA publication for young adult readers.

Formerly a publisher of juveniles, out of the market till 1959, when it will enter adult fiction field.1958, The Author and Journalist, volumes 42–43, Denver, Colo.: H. Ellithrope, →OCLC, page lxxxiv, column 1

nounA two-year-old racehorse.

Even more incredible is the legion of two-year-olds who win handsomely as juveniles and then disappear from the racetrack.1972, Edward Samuel Montgomery, The Thoroughbred, page 449
Instance the way Sir Michael Stoute uses patience to bring along his two-year-old colts and fillies at Newmarket, or the careful approach taken with juveniles by that wonderful conditioner Charlie Whittingham in California.2005, Ken McLean, Designing Speed in the Racehorse, page 206
Thereafter, males aged two to four are colts, females are fillies, racing two-year-olds are sometimes referred to as juveniles, and animals still running at five, the age of thoroughbred maturity, or older, are horses or mares according to gender.2012, Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing, page 6

More sentences with juvenile

The Associated Press will not identify the suspect of the crime because he is a juvenile.From the entry identify
They sat there, robed up to the tonsils, and made me feel so below a juvenile delinquent.From the entry to the tonsils
As juveniles the crocodiles are frequently predated by larger carnivores.From the entry carnivore
There had been several walkaways from the juvenile center.From the entry walkaway
People disliked his boyish and juvenile behaviour.From the entry boyish
We don't make juvenile movies; we make cinematical films.From the entry cinematical
Achaetous gill-less tails are a typical trait for the juvenile stage of development in species of Arenicolidae (phylum Annelida).From the entry achaetous
The two documented examples of telson abnormalities are on juvenile moults (Fig. 2a, b).2022, Russell D. C. Bicknell et al., “Applying Records of Extant and Extinct Horseshoe Crab Abnormalities to Xiphosurid Conservation”, in…. From the entry telson
The neanic stage is a transitional ontogenetic stage leading from the juvenile to the adult stage.2017, Ralf Schiebel, Planktic Foraminifers in the Modern Ocean, page 181. From the entry neanic
Lastly, LipG1 was evaluated as an aquafeed additive for juvenile common carp (Cyprinus carpio).2015 July 6, “A Novel Lipase as Aquafeed Additive for Warm-Water Aquaculture”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry aquafeed
Most of the nervous system that forms during larvogenesis in C. teleta persists into the juvenile stage.2015 July 11, Néva P Meyer et al., “Nervous system development in lecithotrophic larval and juvenile stages of the annelid Capitella…. From the entry larvogenesis
Jordan Moore, been in and out of every juvenile facility in the state.2012 April 27, David Ylhainen, chapter 5, in Second Sons, Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry and a partridge in a pear tree
Two fish species were found in the diet, with juvenile pleuronectids the most common.2008, M. Elliott, K. L. Hemingway, M. J. Costello, S. Duhamel, K. Hostens, M. Labropoulou, S. Marshall, H. Winkler, “Chapter 4: Links…. From the entry pleuronectid
Nadia Crandall draws some illuminating parallels between nineteenth-century versions of gothic fiction and juvenile cyberfiction.2007, Kimberley Reynolds, Radical Children's Literature. From the entry cyberfiction
All that hooky playing, stealing, and getting sent to juvenile jails had set me way back.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 101. From the entry hooky
Well, the basic flight pattern of juvenile Kittiwake and Sabine’s Gull are indeed very similar.1994, Bill Oddie, “Simply the Best: Scilly”, in Follow That Bird! Around the World with a Passionate Bird-Watcher, London: Robson Books…. From the entry Sabine's
But given the funny hats and juvenile hijinx, it's hard to buy the play's more serious intentions.1988 January 15, Tom Boeker, “A Night at Dykes Who Date/Crusaders [theatre review]”, in Chicago Reader, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Reader…. From the entry high jinks
This counterimpulse tends to embrace everything difficult and European with juvenile zeal.1988 November 11, Andrew Goodwin, “Reading: The Cultural Crash of '89”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry counterimpulse
The site yielded three juvenile teeth along with great numbers of stone tools and fossil vertebrates.1975, Chia Lan-po [贾兰坡], “Human palaeontology and archaeology in China”, in The Cave Home of Peking Man [“北京人”之家], Peking: Foreign…. From the entry Hsiangfen
Neotenin, also known as the juvenile hormone, is secreted by the corpora allata.1974, Dennis William Wood, Principles of Animal Physiology, page 318. From the entry neotenin
James Forstner was a well-regarded juvenile probation officer in San Francisco.1964 June 5, “Decisions: No Guilt-by-Beard”, in Time, retrieved 10 Apr 2014. From the entry well-regarded
I remember one of the hostesses whose Christmas parties I attended comparing me to a juvenile bloodhound.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X. From the entry encomium
I think it was simply an exotic form of juvenile delinquency.1959 May, David McReynolds, “McReynolds Reply to [Seymour] Krim”, in Mattachine Review, volume V, number 5, Los Angeles: Mattachine…. From the entry gayness
Fosterhome care should also be applied to juvenile delinquents (in co-operation with child guidance clinics).1955, United Nations. Technical Assistance Administration, European Exchange Plan Seminar on the Institutional Treatment of Juvenile…. From the entry fosterhome
"And wasn't it just jolly!" gloated a juvenile gleesome voice in a loud whisper.1907, Peter T. Harkness, Andy the Acrobat. From the entry gleesome
Smaller specimens are identifiable as juvenile hadrosauromorphs.2020 August 15, Chase Doran Brownstein, Osteology and phylogeny of small-bodied hadrosauromorphs from an end-Cretaceous marine assemblage. From the entry hadrosauromorph
Juvenoia, a term usually credited to sociologist David Finkelhor, refers to the fear of juveniles by older adults.2014 March 12, Chris Ferguson, “What’s Really Wrong With Young People Today: Juvenoia”, in TIME, archived from the original on 20 May 2025. From the entry juvenoia
Statutory exclusion laws allow politicians, not judges, to decide which violent juveniles should be prosecuted by the criminal court.2009, Kären M. Hess, Juvenile Justice, →ISBN, page 324. From the entry statutory exclusion
Is Verhoeven juvenile enough for today’s tensomethings?2007, Murray Pomerance, John Sakeris, editors, Popping Culture, 4th edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 166. From the entry tensomething
Translated from the original Latin, it reads, “Ivan the third; does it with birds.” Rather juvenile, don’t you think?2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave…. From the entry rather
Do you have borstal institutions for juveniles?2004, August 3, Speaker of the Kenyan National Assembly, Kenya National Assembly Official Record, Hansard, page 3126. From the entry borstal

Meaning of juvenile

adjective Young; not fully developed.
adjective Characteristic of youth or immaturity; childish.
noun A prepubescent child.

Full definition of juvenile

Questions about juvenile in a sentence

How do you use juvenile in a sentence?: Juvenile is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The Associated Press will not identify the suspect of the crime because he is a juvenile.”
What is a short sentence with juvenile?: “Do you have borstal institutions for juveniles?”
What does juvenile mean?: Juvenile means young; not fully developed.

Adapted from Wiktionary: juvenile (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use juvenile in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/juvenile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.