adolesce

1. 1.

   become adolescent; pass through adolescence

   “The children are beginning to adolesce around the age of 12”

   Broaderdevelop

Other forms of adolesce

past tense

adolesced·

present participle

adolescing·

third person

adolesces·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about adolesce

What does adolesce mean?

adolesce means "become adolescent; pass through adolescence".

How many syllables are in adolesce?

adolesce has 3 syllables: a-do-lesce. The stress falls on "a".

Is adolesce a common word?

adolesce is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.