youth

Noun

youth (countable and uncountable, plural youths)

1. (uncountable) The quality or state of being young.
   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.1910, Emerson Hough, “The Purchase Price”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
   • Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.1936 Feb. 15, Ernest Hemingway, letter to Maxwell Perkins

   Synonyms:

   juvenility, youngness, youngth, youthfulness

   Antonyms:

   age, dotage, old age, senility

2. (uncountable) The part of life following childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or age; the whole early part of life, from childhood, or, sometimes, from infancy, to adulthood.
   • Make the most of your youth, it will not last forever.
   • I made many mistakes in my youth, but learned from them all.
3. (countable) A young person.
   • There was a group of youths hanging around the parking lot, reading fashion magazines and listening to music.

   Synonyms:

   adolescent, child, kid, lad, teen, teenager, youngster

   Antonyms:

   adult, grown-up

4. (countable) A young man; a male adolescent or young adult.
   • […]and then a youth appeared—no one quite knew where from or to whom he belonged—but he settled down with them in a happy-go-lucky way, and they all lived together.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, pages 274–275

   Synonyms:

   boy, young man

5. (uncountable) Young persons, collectively.
   • The actual brides- and grooms-to-be are not in attendance—many youth would be embarrassed by their parents’ matchmaking efforts, and often do not live in the same city anyway.2012 March, Mary Bergstrom, “Tipping Gender Scales: From Boys Rule to Girl Power About Face”, in All Eyes East: Lessons from the Front Lines of Marketing to China’s Youth, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave...

   Synonyms:

   adolescents, kids, teenagers, teens, young people, youngsters