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middle-aged

middle-aged

133 2.6
A person who is about 45 to 65 years old
  • adjective
  • /ˈmɪdəlˌeɪdʒd/
translation icon : de mediana edad
  • My parents are middle-aged now, and they often discuss their retirement plans.
  • middle-aged people
  • middle-aged adults
  • middle-aged women

The aggrieved people were young and middle-aged white men.

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Examples

  • In the play, we see what it can mean to be middle-aged and to lose a job.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The office door opens in the background, and a short middle-aged man in a dark suit emerges.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • And she was a middle-aged woman, kind of fat.

  • You are learning a lot about middle-aged women, right?

  • I am now middle-aged, not young, right?

  • In China, it's the the middle-aged guys who are saving more and more.

  • Her companion, I noticed, was a handsome middle-aged man who seemed very tall and strongly built.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Two other men came over, one heavyset and middle-aged, the other somewhat younger and very thin.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • We get a geek, an overweight middle-aged guy, some nerdy scientific type.

  • It was my own middle-aged vanity that made me attempt what only a youth can do.

Synonyms

of a certain age
vsmiddle-aged
14 7.2

A polite way to talk about someone who is not young, often middle-aged

is a direct descriptor for people in a defined midlife age range
middle age
vsmiddle-aged
10 2.2

A period of life between about 40 and 60 years old

is the adjective used to describe people in that life stage
fortyish
vsmiddle-aged
  • Informal
2 3.3

About forty years old in appearance

indicates a specific midlife age range rather than an approximate single age
fortysomething
vsmiddle-aged
1 3.2

Being between forty and forty-nine years old

applies to people with a higher or broader midlife age range
forties
vsmiddle-aged
1 1.0

The years in a person's life between ages 40 and 49

refers to a later and wider midlife span rather than that decade
fiftysomething
vsmiddle-aged
4.6

A person between fifty and fifty-nine years old

covers a wider adult age span around midlife rather than a single decade
mid-forties
vsmiddle-aged
2.9

Time in life when someone is about 44 to 46 years old

spans a longer age range centered later than those narrow years

Antonyms

old
1.0

A person who has lived for a long time

1.0

Not old and in an early stage of life

How Old

elderly
68 2.0
older
3 1.0
middle-aged
133 2.6
adult
1.0
young
1.0

Surface Forms

middle-aged positive

Morphology

middle-aged = middle + aged (transparent) = middle + aged

Clear combination of 'middle' and 'aged' yields the meaning 'in the middle period of life', directly derivable from the components.

Etymology

Middle-aged comes from putting together middle 'in the middle' and aged from age 'years' or 'having age'. So it means being in the middle part of life, about 45 to 65 years old.