young

1 of 2

adjective

ˈyəŋ

younger ˈyəŋ-gər

; youngest ˈyəŋ-gəst

Synonyms of young next

: being in the first or an early stage of life, growth, or development

: junior sense 1a

: of an early, tender, or desirable age for use as food or drink

fresh young lamb

a young wine

: having little experience

: recently come into being : new

a young publishing company

: youthful sense 5

: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of youth or a young person

young at heart

capitalized : representing a new or rejuvenated especially political group or movement

youngish

ˈyəŋ-ish

adjective

youngness

ˈyəŋ-nəs

noun

young

2 of 2

noun

plural young

plural

: young persons : youth

: immature offspring

—used especially of animals

: a single recently born or hatched animal

Phrases

with young

of a female animal

: pregnant

Example Sentences

Adjective He looks young for his age. A very nice young man greeted us at the door. Young people today have a lot of opportunities. He dreamed of being an artist when he was young. The movie isn't suitable for young viewers. He's still too young to buy alcohol legally. Our youngest daughter just started school. “When I was young,” the man said, “the world was a different place.” The season is still young. Noun music that appeals to the young The very young and the elderly are particularly sensitive to the disease. a robin feeding her young The young of a wolf are called pups. See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Stretches of strong play are marred by long streaks of inattention and low energy, a death knell for such a young group. —

Michael Shapiro, Chron, 15 Jan. 2023 On weekdays and some weekends and holidays, Algorri takes care of and teaches as many as 14 children — some as young as babies, others as old as 9 — in her Chula Vista house. —

San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Jan. 2023 Reports show most bird strikes, about 53%, happen between July to October when young birds have recently fledged from nests and when fall migration occurs. —

Cindy Krischer Goodman, Sun Sentinel, 15 Jan. 2023 As the story goes, a young Bob Dylan stopped by, unbidden, to participate in an open mic jam session, performing a set of Woody Guthrie songs as the first University of Chicago Folk Festival got underway in 1961. —

Paul Eisenberg, Chicago Tribune, 15 Jan. 2023 The Criminal Court of Vienna confirmed Friday that authorities found 58,000 digital files featuring pornographic depiction of minors, some as young as 14, in the Austrian actor's possession. —

Jessica Wang, EW.com, 15 Jan. 2023 Hiring Steichen would give the Colts the kind of mind who knows how to develop a young quarterback and tailor an offense to his strengths, a key point for an Indianapolis team expected to draft a quarterback in the first round this April. —

The Indianapolis Star, 15 Jan. 2023 The couple shares three young sons, ages 2, 4 and 6. —

Emma Colton, Fox News, 15 Jan. 2023 But school shootings by a suspect so young are relatively rare. —

Emma Tucker, CNN, 15 Jan. 2023

Noun

Neighboring wasp queens like to visit an unguarded nest, snatch a baby from its cell, and bring it home to carve up and feed to their own young. —

Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 10 Apr. 2015 Back in 2004, while promoting Man on Fire, Washington praised Fanning and her acting skills, even at that young of an age. —

Benjamin Vanhoose, Peoplemag, 19 Oct. 2022 Janet Leigh plays a Phoenix secretary who embezzles $40,000 from her employer’s client and goes on the run before checking into a remote motel run by a mysterious young. —

Ben Flanagan | Bflanagan@al.com, al, 26 Sep. 2022 Way back in 2004, while promoting Man on Fire, Washington praised Fanning and her acting skills, even at that young of an age. —

Benjamin Vanhoose, PEOPLE.com, 16 June 2022 In the late 1970s, Jane Goodall’s research on chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, showed that infanticide wasn’t only a male prerogative: The mother-daughter pair Pom and Passion also attacked the young of others, and ate them. —

Rebecca Giggs, The Atlantic, 6 May 2022 Except that the young of any dairy cow is taken from the mother almost immediately. —

Travis M. Andrews, Washington Post, 11 May 2022 Male chimps at West African sites have also been seen adopting the dependent young of a deceased or missing parent, a shouldering of fatherly duty at odds with newborn killings witnessed elsewhere. —

Rebecca Giggs, The Atlantic, 6 May 2022 When successful, the male lions will even kill the young of their predecessors to bring the females into heat to rear their own offspring. —

Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Mar. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'young.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.