puerility

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UK/pjʊəˈɹɪl.ə.ti/US/pjɚˈɹɪl.ə.ti/

noun

The state, quality, or condition of being childish or puerile.

Scrabble 14

Meanings

nounpuerility (countable and uncountable, plural puerilities)

plural puerilities

  1. countableuncountableThe state, quality, or condition of being childish or puerile.
    1 more example

    This classification should have led to the discovery and study of remedies which act specifically upon the various textures and tissues of the body, such as the cellular, serous, mucous, parenchymatous, fibrous, gelatinous, &c., but it did not, except in the most imperfect manner—so imperfect, in fact, that most pathologists, despairing of finding such remedies, at one time sank into all the peurilities^([sic – meaning puerilities]) of the "expectant mode" of the French, or the nihilisms of the German.

    1863, John C. Peters, F[rederick] G. Snelling, “Section I. Of Medicine as a Science and as an Art; Its Objects and Its Extent.”, in Principles and Practice of Medicine, New York, N.Y.: William Radde, […], →OCLC, page 124
  2. countableuncountableThat which is puerile or childish; especially, an expression which is insipid or silly.

    You treat his opinions (though he never thrusts them on you) about "the Church," and his duty, and the souls of his parishioners, with civil indifference, as much ado about nothing; and his rubrical eccentricities as puerilities.

    1857, Charles Kingsley, “The Way to Win Them”, in Two Years Ago, volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 140

Synonyms & antonyms

nounthe state of a child between infancy and adolescence

Similar

nouna property characteristic of a child

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinpuerīlitās
  2. Middle Frenchpuérilité
  3. Middle Englishpuerilite
  4. Englishpuerility

From Middle English puerilite, from Middle French puérilité and its etymon Latin puerīlitās, from puerīlis (“childish, juvenile”), from puer (“boy”). By surface analysis, puerile + -ity.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 幼稚
  • 幼稚 (yòuzhì)Translations
Russian ребячество
  • ребячество (rebjačestvo)Translations
Cite this entry
APA

puerility. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puerility

MLA

“puerility.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puerility. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “puerility,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puerility.

Source: puerility on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.