Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Puberty |
PubertyNoun1. The time of life when sex glands become functional. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "puberty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | The period during which the secondary sex characteristics begin to develop and the capability of sexual reproduction is attained. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Adolescence is the transitional stage of development from child to adult. That time is identified with dramatic changes in body, psychology and academic career. In the onset of adolescence, children usually complete elementary school and enter secondary education, such as middle school or high school.
During this period of life, most children go through the physical stages of puberty, which often begin before a person has reached the age of 13. Most cultures regard people as becoming adults at various ages of the teenage years. Many cultures have a formal age of majority when adolescents formally become adults. For example, Japan's celebration of this in January is called the coming of age (or 成人式) (see Japanese calendar).
Puberty
Puberty, occurring during adolescence, is the stage in the human lifespan when a child begins to develop adult secondary sex characteristics as their hormone balance shifts towards an adult state. Briefly, this is caused by the hypothalamus gland that secretes hormones into the blood stream which trigger growth in the gonads: the girl's ovaries and the boy's testicles. In female adolescents, the first menstrual period is called menarche.
In developed countries, the age at puberty has reduced in the last century, primarily because of better nutrition. That change is particularly apparent in the countries that adopted western food such as Japan. Girls tend to go through puberty earlier than boys.
Preteens
The word preteen describes a child a bit younger than a teenager: perhaps between the ages of about 8 and 12. The neologism tween has the same meaning. This word comes from the age being between that of a child and a teenager.
Preteens are increasingly a specifically targeted market segment by business, because they tend to maintain the preferences they develop at this age. Examples are personal devices such as cellular phones targeted to this segment.
Teenagers
A teenager or teen is a person whose age is a number ending in "-teen" in the English language: that is to say, someone from the age of thirteen to the age of nineteen. The word is of recent origin, only having appeared in the mid 20th century. In Western culture, a distinct teenage culture has developed. This culture is often considered inferior to the mainstream culture, or in rebellion against it, and is thus often referred to as a subculture or counterculture.
In Japan, the term joshi-kousei (女子高生, meaning female high school students) has become widely used for females strictly in the ages from 16 to 18. They are often noted for their obsession with clothes, pop culture and mobile phones. They are often the target of sexual fantasy and ridicule of their obsessions. Prostitution by them, called enjo kousai (援助交際) in Japan, has become a permanent social issue in the late 1990s.
Psychology of adolescents
Maturity in body leads to an interest in sexual activities, sometimes leading to teenage pregnancy. Since they may not be emotionally mature enough or financially able to support children, the latter is usually considered problematic.
At this age there is also a greater probability of drug abuse and alcohol abuse, or mental problems such as schizophrenia, eating disorders and depression. The emotional instability among some adolescents also sometimes causes youth crime.
Search for a unique identity is one of the problems that adolescents often face. They start to ask metaphysical questionss about the meaning of life.
At this age, role models such as sports players and rock stars are popular, and adolescents often express a desire to be like their chosen role model. For this reason, people who are considered role models are often heavily criticised for their behaviour, because of the perceived danger of adolescents copying them.
Social significance
In commerce, this generation is seen as an important target. Cellular phones, contemporary popular music, video games and clothes are popular amongst adolescents.
In the past (and still in some cultures) there were ceremonies that celebrate adulthood, typically occurring during adolescence. Genpuku (translated as coming of age) in Japan is an instance.
Legal issues
In many countries, those over a certain age (perhaps 18, though this varies) are legally considered responsible adults. Those who are under the age of legal responsibility may be considered too young to be held accountable for criminal action. This is called the defense of infancy. The right to vote in elections is given between the ages of 16 and 21 in many countries.
The sale of selected items such as cigarettes, alcohol, videos, and video games with sexual or violent content, is often prohibited based on age. Such age restrictions vary widely. In practice, it is common that young people engage in underage smoking or drinking, and in some cultures this is tolerated to a certain degree.
Given the emotional immaturity of adolescents, many countries consider those under a certain age to be too young to engage in sexual intercourse and other sexual activities, even if they are physiologically capable. See age of consent. This issue has been dramatised in the movie Lolita.
Because of their maturing bodies, adolescents may become more likely targets of sex crimes. Clinically pedophilia (or underage sex) is defined as interest in children before puberty, yet in practice it may also include interest in adolescents. In many countries, molestation of adolescents has become a social issue and is considered a serious crime. Pornography involving those under a certain age, typically 18 (see child pornography), is also considered unacceptable and strictly prohibited in most countries. Countries without such laws may be targets for child sex tourism.
In the past (and still in poor countries), female adolescents were sometimes forced to engage in prostitution, even at a young age.
Fiction about teenagers:
- Rebel Without a Cause
- Stand by Me
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Outsiders
Websites for teenagers
- ThePalace.com. Pick your body image and pick your threads and then party
See also:
- boy band
- child
- education
- rite of passage
- school
- sex education
- sexual abstinence
- teen idol
- teen magazine
- The Teenage Liberation Handbook
- youth culture
Compare with:
The Adolescents is also a name of music band.
- aging
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Adolescence."
Synonym: PubertySynonym: pubescence (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Youth | Cradle, nursery, leading strings, pupilage, puberty, pucelage. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Puberty |
| English words defined with "puberty": acne vulgaris, adolescence, adolescent, adrenarche, attainment ♦ break ♦ castrato, catamenia, child ♦ disorganized schizophrenia, disorganized type schizophrenia ♦ flow, Fry ♦ hebephrenia, hebephrenic schizophrenia ♦ Impuberal, Impuberty ♦ kid ♦ latency period, latency phase, latency stage ♦ menses, menstruation, minor ♦ nestling, nipper ♦ period, prepubertal, prepuberty, prepubescent, Puberal, pubertal, pubescent, Pupillarity ♦ shaver, small fry, soprano, stripling ♦ teenager, thelarche, tiddler, tike, tyke ♦ youngster. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "puberty": Adolescent Medicine, Albright disease, Albright Syndrome, Albright-McCune-Sternberg syndrome, Albright's syndrome ♦ Fluoxymesterone ♦ Nafarelin, Nonne-Milroy-Meige disease, Nonne-Milroy-Meige syndrome ♦ preferential abuser, Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum ♦ Triptorelin ♦ Zukurate. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "puberty": Pubescent. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | If you can achieve puberty, you can achieve a past (Steel Magnolias; writing credit: Robert Harling) I'm sure they'll be a force to be reckoned with when they hit puberty. (Jungleground; writing credit: Michael Stokes) I'd say puberty was inordinately kind to you. (Animaniacs; writing credit: Nick Dubois; Peter Hastings) Don't worry Kelso the puberty bunny will visit you soon (That '70s Show; writing credit: Stacia Raymond) | |
Movie/TV Titles | About Puberty and Reproduction (1974) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Proposed action of IGF-1 in females as puberty approaches. Credit: NIAA. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Child 5" by Jillian Balfour Commentary: "Child: A person between birth and puberty." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Premenopause includes the years between puberty and menopause. (references) | |
But as puberty progresses, they fail to keep pace with other males. (references) | ||
An excess of prolactin can also delay or stop puberty in both sexes. (references) | ||
Children | Nigeria | Young girls sometimes are forced into marriage as soon as they reach puberty, regardless of age, in order to prevent the "indecency" associated with premarital sex. (references) |
Gabon | There was little evidence of physical abuse of children, although there were some reports that girls were sexually abused by family members after reaching puberty. (references) | |
Saudi Arabia | In more general social situations, boys are segregated at the age of 12 and girls at the onset of puberty. (references) | |
Women | Ethiopia | Infibulation--the most extreme and dangerous form of FGM--is performed at any time between the age of 8 and the onset of puberty. (references) |
Cote d'Ivoire | The procedure usually is performed on young girls or at puberty as part of a rite of passage. (references) | |
Chad | FGM usually is performed prior to puberty as a rite of passage and an occasion during which many families profit from gifts from their communities. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Puberty" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Puberty" is used about 167 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 167 | 24,143 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "puberty": age of puberty ♦ of puberty ♦ puberty vocal change ♦ reach puberty. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "puberty": pre-puberty. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
puberty | 2,155 | puberty delayed | 24 |
boy puberty | 245 | puberty and breast | 24 |
puberty picture | 229 | puberty question | 22 |
male puberty | 201 | premature puberty | 22 |
puberty girl | 179 | male picture puberty stage | 22 |
precocious puberty | 131 | puberty picture girl | 22 |
puberty pic | 110 | nude puberty | 21 |
female puberty | 81 | puberty video | 20 |
puberty teen | 66 | male picture puberty teen | 19 |
stage of puberty | 61 | female puberty photo | 19 |
puberty in boy | 58 | female picture puberty stage | 18 |
puberty 101 | 58 | male pic puberty | 18 |
early puberty | 56 | puberty boy picture | 18 |
male picture puberty | 46 | information puberty | 17 |
puberty photo | 45 | puberty sex | 17 |
puberty in girl | 38 | puberty sign | 17 |
forum puberty | 38 | male puberty teen | 16 |
penis puberty | 36 | masturbation puberty | 16 |
female puberty picture | 26 | picture pre puberty teen | 15 |
101 ask puberty question teen | 25 | male puberty stage | 14 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "puberty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | puberteit (adolescence). (various references) | |
Albanian | pubertet, moshë e pjekurisë seksuale. (various references) | |
Arabic | مراهقة, سن الرجولة (manhood), سن الرشد (majority), سن البلوغ (adulthood), إدراك (appreciation, apprehension, cognizance, comprehension, conception, grasp, intelligence, knowledge, maturity, pubescence, realization, reason, recognition, responsiveness, savvy, science, sense, senses, sensibilities, sensibility, smart, understanding), بلوغ (accomplishment, adulthood, maturity, pubescence, ripening). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | пубертет (greenness). (various references) | |
Chinese | 青春期. (various references) | |
Czech | puberta (adolescence). (various references) | |
Danish | pubertet. (various references) | |
Dutch | puberteit (adolescence). (various references) | |
Esperanto | adoleskeco. (various references) | |
Farsi | سن بلوغ (Age), رسیدگی (Assistance, Attendance, Audit, Consideration, Examination, Inquest, Inquiry, Probe, Scrutiny), بلوغ (Adolescence, Maturation, Maturity). (various references) | |
Finnish | murrosikä. (various references) | |
French | puberté, adolescence. (various references) | |
German | Pubertät (adolescence), Geschlechtsreife (sexual maturity). (various references) | |
Greek | ήβη (adolescence, pubescence, pubis). (various references) | |
Hebrew | בגירה (adolescence, maturity, pubescence). (various references) | |
Hungarian | pubertás (pubescence). (various references) | |
Indonesian | masa pubertas, kebaligan (adulthood). (various references) | |
Italian | pubertà. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 花も恥じらう年ごろ (tender age), 青春期 (pubertal, pubescent), 破瓜 (age 16, age 64, deflowering), 思春期 , 春機発動期 , 春の目覚め , 成熟期 (adolescence, period of maturity). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ししゅんき, しゅんきはつどうき, せいしゅんき (pubertal, pubescent), せいじゅくき (adolescence, period of maturity), はか (age 16, age 64, deflowering, grave, tomb), はるのめざめ. (various references) | |
Korean | 사춘기 (Adolescence, teen, teenage). (various references) | |
Manx | amm (age, epoch, period). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ubertypay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | puberdade (pubescence). (various references) | |
Romanian | pubertate. (various references) | |
Russian | половая зрелость (virility). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pubertet. (various references) | |
Spanish | pubertad (pubescence). (various references) | |
Swedish | pubertet (pubescence). (various references) | |
Turkish | erginlik (adulthood, age, discretion, matureness, nubility, ripeness), ergenlik yaşı (age of consent, age of puberty), ergenlik (maturity), buluş (brain child, brainchild, breakthrough, contrivance, creation, detection, discovery, find, finding, innovation, invention), buluğ. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | змужнілість (maleness, manhood, virility). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tuổi dậy thì. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | pubertatis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "puberty": postpuberty, prepuberty. (additional references) | |
| |
"Puberty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Peberdy, Pembrey, Penberthy, poberty, pubber, puber, pubert, pubertiy, pubirty, puverty, Uberti, Uberto. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "puberty" (pronounced pyuw"bertē) |
| 4 | -b er t ē | liberty. |
| 3 | -er t ē | antipoverty, entirety, poverty, property. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-p-r-t-u-y" | |
-2 letters: brute, buret, buyer, erupt, rebut, rebuy, tuber, tuyer, upbye. | |
-3 letters: brut, burp, bury, bute, byre, byte, pert, prey, pure, pyre, rube, ruby, trey, true, tube, tyer, type, tyre, upby, yurt. | |
-4 letters: bet, bey, bur, but, buy, bye, per, pet, pry, pub, pur, put, pye, reb, rep, ret, rub, rue, rut, rye, try, tub. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-p-r-t-u-y" | |
+2 letters: reputably. | |
+3 letters: prepuberty. | |
+4 letters: postpuberty. | |
+5 letters: disreputably, hypermutable, reputability. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
