puberty

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English puberte, from Old French puberté, from Latin pūbertās (“the age of maturity, manhood”). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpjuː.bə.ti/ (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈpju.bɚ.ti/ (Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈpjʉː.bə.ti/ === Noun === puberty (countable and uncountable, plural puberties) A developmental phase brought about by the action of hormones as part of the maturing process. For humans, there are three in total. (more common) The process of sexual development that produces secondary sex characteristics and makes a person capable of reproducing sexually. The age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction. (botany) The period when a plant begins to flower.(The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) ==== Meronyms ==== (process of adolescence): thelarche, pubarche, growth spurt, menarche, gonadarche, adrenarche ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Further reading === “puberty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “puberty”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Puberty”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VII (O–P), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1557, column 3.