childhood
/ˈtʃaɪld.hʊd/ noun
Forms childhoods
- noun (chiefly uncountable) The state of being a child.
- noun The time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.
- noun (by extension) The early stages of development of something.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English childhode, childhod, from Old English ċildhād (“childhood”). By surface analysis, child + -hood. Compare dialectal Dutch kindheid (“childishness”), German Low German Kinnerheid (“childhood”), and German Kindheit (“childhood”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty.
- noun Children, taken collectively. [R.]
Etymology [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “childhood”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details