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young

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

In the early part of growth or life.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

yuhng
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈjʌŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

  2. Early. (of a decade of life)

  3. At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.

  4. Not

    Advanced in age; (far towards or) at a specified stage of existence or age.

  5. Of or belonging to the early part of life.

  6. Junior (of two related people with the same name).

noun

  1. often as if a plural noun

    Offspring, especially the immature offspring of animals.

  2. A British distinguishing surname transferred from the nickname for the younger of two people having the same given name.

  3. A Chinese surname from Cantonese.

  4. A Chinese surname from Hokkien.

  5. A Chinese surname from Mandarin.

  6. Any immature animal

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

Used this way, young is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Junior / british

young lady

Youthful

young girlyoung boyyoung child

Other combinations

young womanyoung personyoung adultyoung fellow

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • young carnivorenounCompound term

    The young of certain carnivorous mammals such as the bear or wolf or lion.

  • young fishnounCompound term

    A fish that is young.

  • young girlnounCompound term

    A girl or young woman who is unmarried.

  • young ladynounCompound term

    A young female.

  • young mammalnounCompound term

    Any immature mammal.

  • young mannounCompound term

    A teenager or a young adult male.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • youngsternounRelated term

    A young person of either sex.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: offspring or especially the immature offspring of animals

baby

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.