childhood

noun

CHYLD-huud/ˈt͡ʃaɪldhʊd/

3 meanings of childhood

1
nouncountable or uncountable
The period of a person's life from infancy until puberty, during which one is a child.
He moved house six times during his childhood, never staying long in one place.
Vaccinations given in childhood protect against several serious diseases.
Similaryouth
Oppositeadulthood
2
noununcountable
The state or condition of being a child.
There is an innocence to childhood that many adults wish they could recover.
War and poverty stripped these children of any real sense of childhood.
Oppositeadulthood
3
nouncountable or uncountable
The period when something is new and still in the first phase of its development.
Photography was in its childhood when these grainy portraits were taken.
The company's childhood was marked by constant experiments and frequent failures.
Similarinfancy, dawn
Oppositematurity

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of childhood apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle English "childhode," from Old English "ċildhād," which breaks down as "child" + "-hood." It is related to German "Kindheit" ("childhood").