Synonyms of adult

adult 1 of 2

noun

as in grown-up

a fully grown person

at the beach, the adults sat under broad umbrellas while the children splashed in the water

Synonyms & Similar Words

• grown-up
• elder
• senior citizen
• oldster
• middle-ager
• ancient
• graybeard
• old-timer
• senior
• gaffer

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• child
• kid
• toddler
• infant
• cub
• tyke
• tot
• moppet
• baby
• adolescent
• youth
• juvenile
• bairn
• tad
• youngster
• minor
• teen
• teenager
• youngling
• preteen
• tween
• teenybopper
• teener
• preteen-ager

adult

2 of 2

adjective

ə-ˈdəlt 

1

as in mature

relating to or typical of adults; displaying proper maturity

an adult reaction to the issue

Synonyms & Similar Words

• mature
• grown-up

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• adolescent
• immature
• infantile
• childish
• kiddish

2

as in pornographic

dealing in or with explicitly sexual material

an adult magazine

Synonyms & Similar Words

• pornographic
• mature
• erotic
• sexy
• suggestive
• X-rated
• hard-core
• porny
• bedroom
• gross
• indecent
• crude
• lustful
• obscene
• lascivious
• filthy
• kinky
• soft-core
• lewd
• bawdy
• coarse
• prurient
• ribald
• smutty
• salacious
• naughty
• dirty
• unprintable
• vulgar
• perverted
• immodest
• racy
• unbecoming
• indecorous
• earthy
• foul
• wicked
• salty
• profane
• wanton
• nasty
• debasing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clean
• Victorian
• puritanical
• prudish
• G-rated
• proper
• prim
• straitlaced
• priggish
• correct
• decent
• polite
• genteel
• decorous
• seemly

3

as in matured

fully grown or developed

insects that are butterflies in their adult stage

Synonyms & Similar Words

• mature
• matured
• ripe
• older
• aged
• aging
• full-fledged
• full-blown
• old
• ripened
• golden
• long-lived
• mellow

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• young
• juvenile
• adolescent
• youthful
• immature
• green
• unripe
• burgeoning
• youngish
• flowering
• flourishing
• unripened
• blooming
• unfinished
• undeveloped
• unformed
• blossoming
• unfledged

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of adult

Noun

The union’s foremost demand has been a contract that guarantees wages commensurate with the skyrocketing cost of living for a single adult New Yorker. — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 5 Oct. 2026

Long-lived healthy adults tend to have microbiomes that are richer in bacterial diversity than those of their chronological peers, with the former having gut bacteria that look more like those of younger, healthier adults. — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 5 Oct. 2026

Adjective

Justin Vernon’s midwestern charm and pliable falsetto has always endeared him to indie-rock dads raised on Michael McDonald, but starting a family himself between Bon Iver projects turned this year’s Sable, Fable into a deep examination of the fatherly adult contemporary figure in popular music. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025

Corrigan has also appeared in independent non-adult films such as Chillerama and appeared in Gus Van Sant’s Harvey Milk biopic Milk. — Mathew Rodriguez, Them., 29 Oct. 2025