Definition of "adolescence" []

• The period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity. (noun)
• A transitional period of development between youth and maturity: the adolescence of a nation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I have a theory that what we call adolescence, in terms of behavioural peculiarities and possibly cognitive difficulties are a product of a very soft, modern, Western society, rather than a definite stage of human development."
• "A young girl (Kendell Moorehead) moves from Chicago to the outskirts of Atlanta, provoking all the neccessary angst and anxiety of being uprooted during adolescence from the place she's grown up."
• "Apparently, adolescence is awkward for humans and birds alike."