puberty
noun/ˈpjuːbəti/
/ˈpjuːbərti/
[uncountable]- the period of a person’s life during which their sexual organs develop and they become capable of having children
- to reach puberty
Collocations The ages of lifeThe ages of lifeChildhood/youthsee also adolescence- be born and raised/bred in Oxford; into a wealthy/middle-class family
- have a happy/an unhappy/a tough childhood
- grow up in a musical family/in an orphanage/on a farm
- be/grow up an only child (= with no brothers or sisters)
- reach/hit/enter/go through adolescence/puberty
- be in your teens/early twenties/mid-twenties/late twenties
- undergo/experience physical/psychological changes
- give in to/succumb to/resist peer pressure
- assert your independence/individuality
- leave school/university/home
- go out to work (at sixteen)
- get/find a job/partner
- be/get engaged/married
- have/get a wife/husband/mortgage/steady job
- settle down and have kids/children/a family
- begin/start/launch/build a career (in politics/science/the music industry)
- prove (to be)/represent/mark/reach a turning point in your life/career
- reach/be well into/settle into middle age
- have/suffer/go through a midlife crisis
- take/consider early retirement
- approach/announce/enjoy your retirement
- have/see/spend time with your grandchildren
- take up/pursue/develop a hobby
- get/receive/draw/collect/live on a pension
- approach/save for/die from old age
- live to a ripe old age
- reach the grand old age of 102/23 (often ironic)
- be/become/be getting/be going senile (often ironic)
- die (peacefully)/pass away in your sleep/after a brief illness
Extra ExamplesTopics Life stagesc2- Girls start menstruating at puberty.
- I was going through puberty.
- He hit puberty a year before any of his friends.
- The body undergoes many changes during puberty.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + puberty- enter
- hit
- reach
- …
- at puberty
- during puberty
- the age of puberty
- the onset of puberty
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin pubertas, from puber ‘adult’, related to pubes ‘pubic hair, groin, genitals’.Want to learn more?
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