youthful

adjective

a youthful new leader

Syn:

young-looking, spry, sprightly, vigorous, active; young, boyish, girlish; fresh-faced, in the springtime of life, in one's salad days

Ant:

old, elderly

••

youthful, adolescent, callow, immature, juvenile, puerile

Everyone wants to look youthful, an adjective that means possessing, or appearing to possess, the qualities associated with youth (a youthful enthusiasm for the job). But no one wants to be called immature, which means childish or emotionally underdeveloped and usually pertains to behavior and attitudes rather than to physical appearance (still immature despite the fact that he was almost thirty). Juvenile suggests immaturity of mind or body and is applied especially to things that are designed for boys and girls in their early teens (juvenile books), while adolescent applies to the period between puberty and maturity and suggests the physical awkwardness and emotional instability associated with the teenage years (an adolescent response to criticism). Young men in particular are often described as callow, which means immature in terms of experience (a callow youth who had never lived away from his family). Of all these words, puerile is probably the most insulting, because it is so often used to describe adults who display the immature behavior of a child (a puerile piece of writing; a puerile revolt against his aging parents).