Word of the Day

: April 10, 2007

nonage

noun NAH-nij

What It Means

1 : minority

2 a : a period of youth

b : lack of maturity

nonage in Context

Peter the Great became the czar of Russia while still in his nonage, so the country was ruled for a time by his half-sister Sophia.

Did You Know?

Minority, majority; infancy, adulthood; nonage, full age -- here you have the three contrasting pairs that constitute the vocabulary of legal age. "Minority," "infancy," and "nonage" are synonyms that mean "the state or time of being under legal age." "Majority," "adulthood," and "full age" mean "the state or time of being of legal age." (All these words, particularly "infancy" and "adulthood," have other meanings as well, of course.) "Nonage" came to us by way of Middle English from an Anglo-French union of "non-" and "age," which combine to mean "not of age."

*Indicates the sense illustrated by the example sentence.