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adulthood

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "adulthood", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "adulthood" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "adulthood" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

adulthood is aEnglishnoun. It means: The state or condition, for humans and other animals, of physical and psychological maturity: being an adult.

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Key facts for adulthood
PropertyValue
Headwordadulthood
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#12,900
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of adulthood in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for adulthood is 9 letters long, classified as anoun. Corpus data places it at rank #12,900 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for adulthood, with forms such as "addulthood", "adluthood", and "adulhtood". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From adult + -hood. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is adulthood, spelled A-D-U-L-T-H-O-O-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The state or condition, for humans and other animals, of physical and psychological maturity: being an adult.
  2. 2
    The time period of a person's majority, following puberty and lasting until death.

Etymology

From adult + -hood.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: addulthood,adluthood,adulhtood,adullthood,adulthhood,adulthod,adulthodo,adulthoodd,adultohod,adultthood,adutlhood,audlthood,daulthood

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for adulthood

Misspelling Variants of "adulthood"

addulthood10adluthood9adulhtood9adullthood10adulthhood10adulthod8adulthodo9adulthoodd10
Misspelling Variants of "adulthood"

Frequency rank: #12,900 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "adulthood"?
"adulthood" is spelled A-D-U-L-T-H-O-O-D.
What does "adulthood" mean?
As a noun, "adulthood" means: The state or condition, for humans and other animals, of physical and psychological maturity: being an adult.
What are common misspellings of "adulthood"?
Common misspellings include "addulthood", "adluthood", "adulhtood", "adullthood", "adulthhood". The correct spelling is "adulthood".
What is the origin of the word "adulthood"?
From adult + -hood. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.