younger
Syllables: youn·gerUK/ˈjʌŋɡə//ˈjʌŋɡɚ/
younger is the comparative form of young.
Meaning of young
Adjective
young (comparative younger, superlative youngest)
- In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
- a lamb is a young sheep
- Synonyms:
- youthful
- At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.
- the age of space travel is still young
- advanced in age; (far towards or) at a specified stage of existence or age.
- And thou, our Mother, twice two centuries young,
Bend with bright shafts of truth thy bow fresh-strung.1906, Robertson Nicoll, Tis Forty Years Since, quoted in T. P.'s Weekly, volume 8, page 462
- And thou, our Mother, twice two centuries young,
- Junior (of two related people with the same name).
- The young Mr. Chester must be in the wrong, and the old Mr. Chester must be in the right.1841, The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art
- Early (of a decade of life).
- […] Miss Hessy is as pretty a girl as eye can see, in her young twenties and a bit of a fortune to boot.1922, E. Barrington, “The Mystery of Stella” in “The Ladies!” A Shining Constellation of Wit and Beauty, Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, pp. 40-41
- Youthful; having the look or qualities of a young person.
- Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching...2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
Adjective
younger (not comparable)
Noun
younger (plural youngers)
- One who is younger than another.
- Hugh and Charlie also played fairly well, so perhaps it was not wonderful that James, who had always regarded cricket as a childish waste of time, felt rather at a loss, and did not care to display his inferiority to his youngers.1882, L. H. Apaque, A baker's dozen, page 102
- Youngers did not like olders to be mean and bossy.1964, Robert S. Fox, Ronald Lippitt, John E. Lohman, Teaching of Social Science Material in the Elementary School, page 3
Proper noun capitalized: Younger
Younger (plural Youngers)
- A surname.
Synonyms of younger
Antonyms
Forms of younger
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | youngers |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Youngers |
Origin of younger
* An English (mainly Northumberland and eastern Scotland) surname from Middle English yungre (“younger”), used to distinguish younger and older men with the same name. * In at least one case (of an immigrant Fleming), probably an Americanized form of Middle Dutch jongheer (“young nobleman”). * Americanized form of cognate or like-sounding names, notably German Junger, Junker and Dutch Jonker.
Words formed from younger
Phrases with younger
Words that rhyme with younger
Questions about younger
- What does younger mean?
- Younger means synonym of junior.
- What is younger the comparative form of?
- Younger is the comparative form of young.
- What part of speech is younger?
- Younger can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce younger?
- Younger is pronounced /ˈjʌŋɡə/ (UK).
Words near younger in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: younger (page history and authors); Younger (page history and authors); young (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-younger.ogg.
Cite this entry: “younger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/younger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.