puerility
- noun
- /pjʊˈɛrɪlɪti/
- Formal
:
puerilidad
- When we compare it to "The Secret Integration," we cannot fail to agree that the story, in Pynchon's words, is marred by "quaintness and puerility" (6); still, it develops a male space safe from responsibility and, most importantly, from women.
Examples
-
Her puerility was evident when she threw a tantrum over a small disagreement with her friends.
-
Let us leave these puerilities and compare together not men but groups.
Academic text (1995) -
This experiment, as might be expected, collapsed into banality and puerility.
Academic text (1992) -
It is a caricature of puerility and nothing more.
Blog text (4) -
All Jacobson novels share an obsession with sex—which helps explain the common likening of his work to that of Philip Roth, with whom he does share a certain puerility on such matters.
Academic text (2010) -
His constant joking and playful behavior reflected a certain puerility that was unexpected in a person of his age.
-
The debate quickly descended into puerility, with participants making childish remarks instead of discussing serious issues.
Synonyms
4
3.9
Behaving like a child, not like an adult
1
9.9
An adult acting in a childlike and immature way
A way of acting like a child instead of like an adult
A state of not being fully developed in behaviour or ability
Antonyms
How Childish
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word puerility comes from the Latin root puer meaning 'boy', which gives the image of 'boyish' or childish behaviour. So puerility is used for childishness or immature actions and ideas.