young adult

adjective

: of, relating to, or being a category of fiction that is primarily intended for adolescent readers

young adult fiction/literature

We live in an era of blockbuster young adult book series: Harry Potter, Twilight, now the Hunger Games.

—Leah Wilson

Early in her four-year career as the young adult librarian of the Huckaby Public Library, Veronica Garde observed that most of the staff had a sliding scale of courtesy toward library users, teenagers being given the shortest shrift.

—A. J. Anderson

—abbreviation YA

Examples of young adult in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Nieuwsma cited additional city departments such as Evanston’s youth and young adult division, workforce development body, the city’s alternate response CARE team and the victim services program. — Claire Murphy, Chicago Tribune, 19 Sep. 2026

Cure should not mean handing a young adult a treatment summary and wishing them well. — Vidya Puthenpura, Hartford Courant, 18 Sep. 2026

Never mind that the Mets had an on-field awards presentation for their minor league players and coaches of the year, and never mind that young adult author Rebecca Yarros threw out the first pitch. — Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 15 Sep. 2026

Slater and Thomas are both likable, too often a rare quality among young adult protagonists, and Mann and Frank mostly give them good choices to make. — Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 2 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above