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childhood

childhood

687 1.0
The time in life when someone is a child before becoming a teenager
  • noun
  • /ˈtʃaɪldhʊd/
translation icon : infancia
  • Many of my happiest memories come from my childhood experiences in the countryside.
  • early childhood
  • childhood and adolescence
  • childhood abuse

But that said, it also made your childhood much worse.

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Examples

  • I would love to know some of your favorite childhood books that shaped you.

  • They were my childhood pets, and they were named after Italian Renaissance painters.

  • Anyway, that was a tour of my childhood books.

  • I look back now and the childhood I had was just amazing.

  • Think back to a time in your childhood when you were so excited.

  • For most of my childhood, River Street connected me to the rest of the world.

    Academic text (2011)
  • You had a very happy childhood.

  • I had a perfectly normal childhood.

  • I would venture to guess that many of you have similar childhood memories.

    Academic text (2011)
  • It smells like my childhood.

Antonyms

101 3.3

A state of being fully grown in body, mind, or feelings

61 3.1

The time in life when a person is fully grown and has more responsibilities

Compounds

A person you have known since you were a child who is still close to you

early childhood
  • Specialized
26 2.0

Years from birth to about six years old when children grow and learn quickly

Things you remember from when you were a child

A happy time from when you were a child that you still think about with joy

1 7.7

A period in old age when mental decline makes a person behave like a young child

Playful, slightly naughty actions that children do for fun

How Old

adolescent
50 3.4
childhood
687 1.0
early childhood
  • Specialized
26 2.0
toddlerhood
1 3.4
infancy
35 3.7

Surface Forms

childhood singular
childhoods plural

Morphology

childhood = child (transparent) = child + hood

The meaning is directly derived from 'child' + '-hood' indicating the state or period of being a child.

Etymology

Childhood is made of child and the ending -hood, which means 'state' or 'time', as in adulthood or neighborhood. So childhood is the time of being a child before you grow up.