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

Things that interested me as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult still interest me. —Peter Larsen, Daily News, 5 Feb. 2026

Plot details are vague other then it being described as a dark academia young adult novel with a supernatural edge that will leave readers breathless. —Justin Kroll, Deadline, 5 Feb. 2026

Turtle Mountain citizen Faron Houle renewed his tribal ID card and got his young adult son’s and his daughter’s first ones. —Graham Lee Brewer, Fortune, 31 Jan. 2026

The film explores Kahlo’s rise as an artist in Mexico City and the impact disability and chronic pain from an accident as a young adult had on her life and work. —Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 29 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for young adult

• catapult
• subadult
• consult
• exult
• insult
• iseult
• occult
• result
• cult