waithood

W4A1I1T1H4O1O1D2

noun

A period of limbo faced by young college graduates in developing countries, in which activities belonging to the traditional transition into adulthood, such as marriage and buying a home, are put off to allow the securing of employment or money.

Scrabble 15
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounwaithood (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA period of limbo faced by young college graduates in developing countries, in which activities belonging to the traditional transition into adulthood, such as marriage and buying a home, are put off to allow the securing of employment or money.

Origin

Coined by Diane Singerman in 2007 as a blend of wait + adulthood, modelled after the earlier term wait unemployment; see the citations page.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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