juvenile
/ˈd͡ʒuvəˌnaɪl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.88 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Characteristic of youth or immaturity; childish.
noun
noun
A person younger than the age of majority; a minor.
noun
A person younger than the age of full criminal responsibility, such that the person either cannot be held criminally liable or is subject to less severe forms of punishment.
noun
A publication for young adult readers.
Example Sentences
- "There are certain Climates, where the Mind ripens and attains ſooner to Perfection than in others: nay there are ſome Conſtitutions of Body, where the humours are ſo exactly mixt, that they form an admirable Temper; the Effects thereof are diſcoverable in the firſt Juvenile Years, and leave very fine Remains, even in a decrepit Age."
- "We should then be able to count on the labours of fifty thousand juvenile home missionaries, and the next generation would be able to speak from a happier experience than we, of "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."—From the Canada Sunday School Record."
- "When juvenile offenders are spoken of, young thieves are usually intended; for an examination of the annals of crime will show that varied as are the offences of adults, those for which children are arraigned in a criminal court are almost invariably thefts more or less trivial; […]"
- "[T]he juvenile justice system became firmly established as the legitimate institution for responding to juvenile delinquency and misconduct during 1900 and 1960."
- "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. It affects approximately 50,000 children in the United States. Inflammation causes redness, swelling, warmth, and soreness in the joints, although many children with JRA do not complain of joint pain."
- "Adde to this diſsipated and diſtracted ſtate of Miniſters, their private diſtreſſes and poverties, together with the publick neglect and indifferency of people toward them; who can wonder if they look pitifully one on another, which no jocoſe or juvenile drolings can relieve?"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful; juvenile”), from iuvenis (“young; a youth”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or a pertaining to). Iuvenis is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”), from *h₂óyu (“long life; lifetime”) (from *h₂ey- (“age; life”)) + *h₁én (“in”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈd͡ʒuvəˌnaɪl/
- British English: /ˈd͡ʒuːvənaɪl/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
juvenile diabetes
juvenile hormone
juvenile water
post-juvenile
juvenile court
juvenile delinquency
juvenile delinquent
juvenile detention center