preadolescent
/ˌpriːadəˈlɛs(ə)nt
/adjective
1(Of a child) having nearly reached adolescence: preadolescent girls...
- It homogenises things around the key demographic of the show (adolescent and pre-adolescent kids, particularly girls) to an unfortunate degree - but hey - this is commercial TV.
- Because his or her body is not ready yet, do not encourage your pre-adolescent child to participate in adult-style physical activity such as long jogs, using an exercise bike or treadmill, or lifting heavy weights.
- The qualities aimed for are those prized by pre-adolescent children: noise, distraction, and nervous excitement.
1.1Relating to the two or three years preceding adolescence: Mozart’s preadolescent sonatas
noun
A preadolescent child.Still other camps serve pre-adolescents who, bubbling and tripping along with enthusiasm and zeal, are clamoring to figure out the concept of ‘us.’...
- She reveals, albeit incidentally, what makes ballroom practice so universal for these pre-adolescents: each wants to fit in and each has a keen desire to understand the adult world.
- When the war ends, the city is left with gangs of pre-adolescents armed to the teeth, who have neither qualms about murder nor basic reading and writing skills.
Derivatives
preadolescence
- Parents and children were all buried together and although the parents lived to a decent old age they were unfortunate to lose their children, either in infancy, pre-adolescence or early adulthood.
- Or was he Peter Pan who wanted to live out this fantasy of always being young so that his development was arrested pre-adolescence?
- This being pre-adolescence, I also rather liked the canvases smothered in greasy black spots.