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Childhood vs Young - What's the difference?

childhood | young |

As a noun childhood

is (uncountable) the state of being a child.

As a proper noun young is

for the younger of two people having the same given name.

childhood

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (uncountable) The state of being a child.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Terrie Moffitt] [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/richie-poulton et] [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/avshalom-caspi al.
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Lifelong Impact of Early Self-Control , passage=To our own surprise, our 40-year study of 1,000 children revealed that childhood self-control strongly predicts adult success, in people of high or low intelligence, in rich or poor, and does so throughout the entire population, with a step change in health, wealth, and social success at every level of self-control.}}
  • The time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood .}}
  • (by extension) The early stages of development of something.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the childhood of our joy

    Derived terms

    * second childhood

    See also

    * (wikipedia)

    young

    English

    (wikipedia young)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
  • * Daniel De Foe
  • while the fears of the people were young
  • *
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • As if young; having the look or qualities of a young person.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • Of or belonging to the early part of life.
  • (obsolete) Having little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.

    Synonyms

    * (born not long ago) youthful, junior * (having qualities of a young person) youthful, juvenile * (of or belonging to the early part of life) juvenile * (inexperienced) underdeveloped, undeveloped, immature

    Antonyms

    * (born not long ago) old, aged, grown up, senior, youthless, elderly * (having qualities of a young person) aged, old, youthless, mature, elderly * (of or belonging to the early part of life) senior, mature , elderly * (inexperienced) mature, experienced, veteran

    Derived terms

    * bright young thing * eat one's young * sweet young thing * the night is young * the good die young * with young * young adult * young at heart * young blood * young buck * you can't put an old head on young shoulders * young fogey * young gun * youngish * young lady * younglet * younglike * youngling * youngly * youngness * youngster

    Noun

    (-)
  • People who are young; young beings.
  • The younger generation.
  • Offspring.
  • The lion caught a gnu to feed its young .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To become or seem to become
  • * {{quote-book, 1993, Jacob S. Siegel, A Generation of Change, page=5, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=i41qoTaUwegC&pg=PA5
  • , passage=The aging (or younging ) of a population refers to the fact that a population, as a unit of observation, is getting older (or younger).}}
  • To cause to appear younger
  • * {{quote-book, 1984, US Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports citation
  • , passage=Medicare data was "younged " by a month to achieve conformity with the conventional completed ages recorded in the census.}}
  • (geology) To exhibit younging
  • * {{quote-journal, 1994, R. Kerrich & D.A. Wyman, The mesothermal gold-lamprophyre association, Mineralogy and Petrology, doi=10.1007/BF01159725
  • , passage=Shoshonitic magmatism younged southwards in the Superior Province, commensurate with the southwardly diachronous accretion of allochthonous subprovinces.}}
  • * {{quote-journal, 2001, date=November 23, Paul Tapponnier et al., Oblique Stepwise Rise and Growth of the Tibet Plateau, Science citation
  • , passage=The existence of magmatic belts younging northward implies that slabs of Asian mantle subducted one after another under ranges north of the Himalayas. }}