adult

1. 1.

   a fully developed person from maturity onward

   Synonymsgrownup

   Antonymsjuvenile

   Broaderperson

   Narrowerbrachycephaliccaregivercatchcentristcharacterconservativedolichocephalicelderex-spousefascist

   Partsadult body
2. 2.

   any mature animal

   Broaderanimal

1. 1.

   (of animals) fully developed

   “an adult animal”

   “a grown woman”

   Synonymsbigfull-grownfully growngrowngrownup

   Similarmature

   animal

2. 2.

   designed to arouse lust

   “pornographic films and magazines”

   “adult movies”

   Synonymspornographic

   Similarsexy

Other forms of adult

plural

adults·

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 adult

What does adult mean?

adult means "a fully developed person from maturity onward". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in adult?

adult has 2 syllables: a-dult. The stress falls on "dult". In IPA it is /əˈdʌlt/.

What is another word for adult?

Close synonyms include grownup, big, full-grown, fully grown, grown. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of adult?

The recorded antonyms are juvenile.

Is adult a common word?

adult is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.