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precocious

precocious

22 7.4
Able to do or understand things earlier than usual, often in children
  • adjective
  • /prɪˈkoʊʃəs/
translation icon : precoz
  • The precocious child amazed everyone with her ability to solve complex math problems before entering kindergarten.
  • precocious child
  • precocious girl
  • precocious development

But she was a spiritual, precocious, intelligent, charming young girl.

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Examples

  • Home schooling is a viable option for educating precocious, gifted, and talented children.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Despite the abundance of research and theories about human development, few recent studies involve precocious children.

    Academic text (1996)
  • You' re a real precocious kid.

  • Hey, my precocious little daughter.

  • You are a precocious boy who is perhaps ashamed at how much he likes attention.

  • And he was really very precocious at that age and much smarter than I was and still much smarter than I am.

  • But she was a spiritual, precocious, intelligent, charming young girl.

  • Despite this domestic instability, Georgiana remained a precocious child and learned to read by the age of four.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • As a child, Astorre was always a leader, precocious in his sociability.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • He's a precocious boy, a bit withdrawn, secretive with a gift for languages and mathematics.

Compounds

precocious dentition
  • Specialized
8.4

A baby's first teeth coming out much earlier than usual

How Advanced

prodigious
19 7.5
advanced
379 4.0
precocious
22 7.4
typical
843 1.0
delayed
1 1.3

Surface Forms

precocious positive
precociously positive
precociousness positive

Etymology

The word precocious comes from Latin parts prae- 'before' and coquere 'to cook', where coquere meant 'to ripen'. So something precocious 'ripens before' others, and we use it for a child or plant that shows skill or growth earlier than usual.