childhood
[noun]
Synonyms: youth, boyhood or girlhood, immaturity, infancy, minority, schooldays

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English Thesaurus: young, small/little, teenage, adolescent, juvenile, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

child‧hood W3 /ˈtʃaɪldhʊd/ noun [uncountable and countable]
the period of time when you are a child:
I had a very happy childhood.
in/during/since (sb’s) childhood
Most infections occur in childhood.
She had been writing poems since her childhood.
childhood home/friend/experience etc (=a home etc that you had when you were a child)
childhood memories (=the memories you have of your childhood) ⇒ second childhood

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In everyday English, people usually say when I was a child when talking about their childhood:
■ During my childhood we lived by the ocean. ➔ When I was a child we lived by the ocean.
■ | She’s known him since childhood. ➔ She’s known him since she was a child.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

childhood
noun
ADJ. happy | deprived, difficult, lonely, traumatic, unhappy | normal | early From earliest childhood she'd had a love of dancing.
late His health remained poor into later childhood.
VERB + CHILDHOOD have She had a very happy childhood.
spend He spent most of his childhood in Egypt.
survive Her second son didn't survive childhood.
CHILDHOOD + NOUN days, years | dream, experience, fantasy, memories | friend, sweetheart | home | disease, illness, mortality
PREP. during ~ He became diabetic during childhood.
from ~ She still retained many friends from childhood.
in ~ She died in childhood.
throughout ~ He travelled a lot throughout his childhood.
PHRASES scenes from/of sb's childhood

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

childhood

happy/unhappy
Her parents divorced and her childhood was unhappy.
normal
I think my childhood was fairly normal.
lonely
He had no brothers or sisters and a lonely childhood.
a deprived childhood (=without enough money, food, attention etc)
Many children living in these areas have very deprived childhoods.
early/late childhood
Experiences in early childhood are very important.
have a happy/unhappy etc childhood
I wish I'd had a happy childhood like yours.
spend your childhood
This is the house where the artist spent most of his childhood.
remember something from (your) childhood
He remembered the place from his childhood.
childhood memories
The smell in the air brought back happy childhood memories.
a childhood friend
He married his childhood friend.
somebody's childhood home
Her childhood home was in North Dakota.
a childhood experience
Our childhood experiences make us who we are.
a childhood illness/disease
measles and other common childhood illnesses

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

young not old:
a young man of about 22
My dad died when I was young.
There are excellent facilities for young children.
Young people are often unable to get jobs.
small/little a small child is very young. Little sounds more informal than small, and is used especially in spoken English:
They have two small children.
We used to go camping a lot when the kids were little.
teenage [only before noun] between the ages of 13 and 19:
a group of teenage boys
They have three teenage children.
adolescent especially written at the age when you change from being a child into an adult – used especially when talking about the problems that young people have at this age:
Sudden mood changes are common in adolescent girls.
adolescent behaviour
juvenile /ˈdʒuːvənaɪl $ -nəl, -naɪl/ [only before noun] formal connected with young people who commit crime:
juvenile crime
a special prison for juvenile offenders
juvenile deliquents (=young people who commit crimes)
youthful especially written seeming young, or typical of someone who is young – often used about someone who is no longer young:
a youthful 55 year old
youthful enthusiasm
Andrew still has a slim youthful look about him.
The photograph showed a youthful, smiling Rose.
junior connected with sports played by young people rather than adults:
the junior championships
the junior champion
childhood the time when you are a child, especially a young child:
I had a wonderful childhood in the country.
childhood illnesses
girlhood/boyhood the time when you are a young girl or boy:
The two men had been friends in boyhood.
the transition from girlhood to womanhood
youth the time when you are young, especially between about 15 and 25 when you are no longer a child:
He was a great sportsman in his youth.
She revisited all the places where she had spent her youth.
adolescence the time when you are changing from being a child into an adult – used especially when you are talking about the problems people have at this age:
During adolescence, boys are often lacking in self-confidence.
infancy formal the time when you are a baby:
In the past, many more babies died in infancy.
baby a very young child who has not yet learned to speak or walk:
I sat next to a woman holding a baby.
toddler a baby who has learned how to walk:
The playground has a special area for toddlers.
infant formal a baby or a very young child:
The disease is mainly found in infants.
little one spoken informal a baby, or a small child up to the age of about three:
How old is your little one?
litter a group of baby animals that are born at the same time to the same mother:
Our cat has just had a litter of six kittens.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲