noun

adolescence

ad-uh-LESS-ens/ˌædəˈlesns/

The stage of life between childhood and adulthood.

The central figure is in adolescence, between childhood and adulthood.

Teenage stage emphasized between child and adult.

Etymology

adLatintoward

+olescLatinto be nourished, grow

+enceLatinstate or condition

The pieces frame youth as a condition of growing toward maturity, with growth linked to nourishment. The abstract noun names the period of that development between childhood and adulthood.

In context

Prof. Sam Vaknin54:42

adolescence in this phase they are faced with physical growth sexual maturity integrating ideas

Pseudoidentities in Cluster B Personality Disorders: Spectacle and Simulacra

More examples

His interest in music began in early adolescence.
The memoir follows two sisters through childhood and adolescence.
Many physical and social changes occur during adolescence.

Forms

adolescent noun — A young person approaching physical and social maturity.

Similar words

puberty: Specifically concerns physical sexual maturation rather than the whole life stage.
youth: Broader and less precisely bounded than the transition from childhood.