youth
/juθ/noun
youth is spelled Y-O-U-T-H: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 56 times per million words in written English, the 1,822nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, youth means “The quality or state of being young” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of youth is youths.
How many letters and syllables are in youth?
| Letters | 5: Y-O-U-T-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 56 times per million words; the 1,822nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is youth?
Youth appears 56 times per million words in written English, the 1,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce youth?
- UK /juːθ/
- British /jʉwθ/
- US /juθ/
Youth has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-youth.wav, En-us-youth.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with youth
Also written: y.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with youth?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as youth from its last stressed vowel (/uθ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of youth
- youths plural
- yought
- youthe
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does youth mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The quality or state of being young.
Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was not
- 2
The part of life following childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or age; the whole early part of life, from childhood, or, sometimes, from infancy, to adulthood.
Make the most of your youth, it will not last forever.
- 3
A young person.
There was a group of youths hanging around the parking lot, reading fashion magazines and listening to music.
- 4
A young man; a male adolescent or young adult.
- 5
Young persons, collectively.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate youth?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of youth: y.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Youth in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | jeunesse , jeune , jeune homme |
| German | Jugend, Jugendlichkeit , Jugendlicher, Jugendliche , Jugendzeit |
| Portuguese | juventude , jovem, moço , rapaz , infância |
| Spanish | juventud, albor de la vida, albores de la vida , mocedad, años mozos |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does youth come from?
From Middle English youthe, youghte, ȝouþe, from Old English ġeoguþ (“the state of being young; youth”), from Proto-West Germanic *juwunþa, from Proto-Germanic *jugunþō, *jugunþiz (“youth”), corresponding to young + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Juugd, West Frisian jeugd, Dutch jeugd, German Low German Jöögd, German Jugend.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).