young adult
"young-adult" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“young adult” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who has achieved the age of majority but whose character and personality are still developing as they gain experience.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | young adult |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “young adult” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for young adult is 11 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for young adult, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is young adult, spelled Y-O-U-N-G- -A-D-U-L-T.
Definition
- 1A person who has achieved the age of majority but whose character and personality are still developing as they gain experience.
- 2An adolescent; a genre of writing aimed primarily at this readership.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “young adult”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Y-O-U-N-G- -A-D-U-L-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.