the period at the beginning of adolescence when the sex glands become functional and the secondary sexual characteristics emerge
Also called: pubescence
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
pu•ber•ty /ˈpyubɚti/USA pronunciation
n. [uncountable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- Developmental Biologythe period of life during which the sex organs mature and certain other parts of the body develop (as breasts in females and body hair in males), and the individual becomes capable of sexual reproduction.
pu•ber•ty
(pyo̅o̅′bər tē),USA pronunciation n.
- Developmental Biologythe period or age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction of offspring: in common law, presumed to be 14 years in the male and 12 years in the female.
- Latin pūbertās adulthood, equivalent. to pūber-, stem of pūbēs grown-up + -tās -ty2
- Middle English puberte 1350–1400
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'puberty' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
adolescence
- break
- breast
- castrato
- child
- childhood
- crack
- female
- gender identity
- gonadotropin releasing hormone
- hebetic
- juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
- latency period
- menstruation
- mons pubis
- prepuberty
- prepubescent
- pubertal
- puberulent
- pubes
- pubescent
- pupil
- pupillarity
- rite of passage
- secondary sex characteristic
- soprano
- subincision
- thymus
- tutor
- youth