Better word than mature

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

  1. matureverb

    Fully developed; grown up in terms of physical appearance, behaviour or thinking; ripe.

    She is quite mature for her age.

    Antonyms:
    immature, childish

  2. matureadjective

    Profound; careful.

    The headmaster decided to expel the boy after a mature consideration.

    Antonyms:
    superficial

Matched Categories

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    • Develop
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Princeton’s WordNetRate these antonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

  1. matureadjective

    characteristic of maturity

    «mature for her age»

    Antonyms:
    embryonic, adolescent, childish, embryonal, prepubescent, juvenile, jejune, inchoative, puerile, larval, pubescent, underdeveloped, immature, prepubertal, pupal, babyish, prepupal, undeveloped, embryologic, infantile

    Synonyms:
    matured, ripe, fledged

  2. mature, maturedadjective

    fully considered and perfected

    «mature plans»

    Antonyms:
    adolescent, juvenile, embryonic, prepupal, pupal, immature, undeveloped, infantile, puerile, childish, embryonal, prepubescent, prepubertal, underdeveloped, pubescent, inchoative, larval, babyish, embryologic, jejune

    Synonyms:
    matured, full-blown, ripe, fledged

  3. matureadjective

    having reached full natural growth or development

    «a mature cell»

    Antonyms:
    immature, juvenile, underdeveloped, embryologic, infantile, pubescent, embryonal, pupal, adolescent, prepubertal, prepubescent, prepupal, childish, puerile, inchoative, larval, jejune, undeveloped, babyish, embryonic

    Synonyms:
    matured, ripe, fledged

  4. ripe, matureadjective

    fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used

    «ripe peaches»; «full-bodied mature wines»

    Antonyms:
    prepubertal, larval, embryonic, prepupal, childish, underdeveloped, babyish, embryologic, juvenile, undeveloped, puerile, pubescent, jejune, infantile, immature, prepubescent, pupal, adolescent, embryonal, inchoative

    Synonyms:
    advanced, fledged, good, ripe, ripe(p), right, matured

  5. fledged, matureverb

    (of birds) having developed feathers or plumage; often used in combination

    Antonyms:
    immature, inchoative, infantile, undeveloped, prepubescent, pubescent, larval, pupal, adolescent, juvenile, prepubertal, puerile, prepupal, underdeveloped, babyish, jejune, embryologic, embryonic, childish, embryonal

    Synonyms:
    matured, vaned, fledged, ripe

  6. mature, maturate, growverb

    develop and reach maturity; undergo maturation

    «He matured fast»; «The child grew fast»

    Antonyms:
    larval, infantile, puerile, adolescent, embryonal, childish, prepubescent, immature, prepupal, undeveloped, inchoative, prepubertal, babyish, jejune, underdeveloped, pubescent, juvenile, embryologic, embryonic, pupal

    Synonyms:
    turn, age, grow, farm, produce, spring up, suppurate, acquire, arise, senesce, rise, develop, ripen, originate, fester, maturate, get, uprise, raise, get on

  7. matureverb

    develop and work out fully in one’s mind

    «I need to mature my thoughts»

    Antonyms:
    undeveloped, infantile, pupal, prepubertal, embryologic, immature, prepubescent, juvenile, adolescent, jejune, larval, underdeveloped, embryonic, embryonal, inchoative, puerile, childish, pubescent, prepupal, babyish

    Synonyms:
    ripen, suppurate, grow, maturate, get on, senesce, age

  8. matureverb

    become due for repayment

    «These bonds mature in 2005»

    Antonyms:
    underdeveloped, immature, babyish, prepupal, undeveloped, puerile, pupal, jejune, prepubescent, prepubertal, embryonic, inchoative, juvenile, embryologic, pubescent, childish, adolescent, infantile, embryonal, larval

    Synonyms:
    ripen, suppurate, grow, maturate, get on, senesce, age

  9. ripen, matureverb

    cause to ripen or develop fully

    «The sun ripens the fruit»; «Age matures a good wine»

    Antonyms:
    immature, jejune, prepupal, pubescent, adolescent, babyish, prepubescent, puerile, infantile, larval, childish, embryonic, pupal, prepubertal, underdeveloped, embryologic, juvenile, inchoative, undeveloped, embryonal

    Synonyms:
    ripen, suppurate, age, get on, senesce, maturate, grow

  10. senesce, age, get on, mature, maturateverb

    grow old or older

    «She aged gracefully»; «we age every day—what a depressing thought!»; «Young men senesce»

    Antonyms:
    inchoative, undeveloped, prepubertal, immature, juvenile, adolescent, babyish, larval, pupal, underdeveloped, jejune, embryologic, embryonal, embryonic, puerile, infantile, pubescent, prepupal, childish, prepubescent

    Synonyms:
    get on, age, shape up, progress, bestride, come on, grow, climb on, be on, suppurate, board, come along, senesce, get along, get along with, mount up, get on with, advance, jump on, fester, ripen, mount, maturate, hop on

  11. suppurate, matureverb

    cause to ripen and discharge pus

    «The oil suppurates the pustules»

    Antonyms:
    larval, infantile, pupal, adolescent, childish, juvenile, babyish, embryonic, underdeveloped, jejune, inchoative, immature, prepubescent, prepubertal, puerile, pubescent, embryologic, prepupal, undeveloped, embryonal

    Synonyms:
    get on, fester, age, ripen, senesce, suppurate, maturate, grow

How to use mature in a sentence?

  1. Peter De Vries:

    The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds — they mature slowly.

  2. Tristar Media/Getty Images:

    I am more immature by the moment – my son is more mature than me, i used to be grown-up, but I’ve lost it.

  3. Amit Ray:

    In reality, Allopathic medicine should be called as alternative medicine and Ayurveda as the main line medicine. As Ayurveda is more mature, holistic, time tested, fewer side effects, and older than the allopathy.

  4. Patrick Wardle:

    While the average user talking about their daily activities with their family over Zoom are probably fine, I would recommend sticking with the platforms created by more mature companies.

  5. John W. Gardner:

    One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.

How to pronounce mature?

How to say mature in sign language?

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Are we missing a good antonym for mature?

Is there a word that captures the following meaning?

«Neither modern nor outdated. Mature and stable.»

For example, if this word were X, then we could apply it to a technology like television or a branch of study like science because they are mature and stable. Neither is exactly too modern. However, we could not apply this word to say smartphones or electric cars because they are pretty modern. They may be stable too but they are modern and so they are ruled out.

Here are some example usages of this word:

  1. Television is an X piece of technology.

  2. I love web browsers because they are X.

asked Nov 18, 2020 at 18:17

Lone Learner's user avatar

Lone LearnerLone Learner

9272 gold badges10 silver badges18 bronze badges

5

«established»

Television is an established piece of technology.

I love web browsers because they are well-established

Definition of established

1: accepted and recognized or followed by many people

established rules/customs/traditions

2a: successful for a long period of time and widely known

an established author/artist

an established law firm

… people with Ph.D.s have been credentialed by established experts in
their fields — Louis Menand

b: growing or flourishing successfully

an established plant

an established flower garden

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/established

answered Nov 18, 2020 at 18:48

chasly - supports Monica's user avatar

2

Mature is the correct word. When someone says a technology is mature, it in no way means it is outdated or obsolete. Mature only means it is stable and has been well vetted. Obsolescence is an independent matter. For example, jet engines and rockets are a mature technology but no one would say that either are outdated. Obsolescence only happens when a replacement technology comes along and itself approaches maturity.

answered Nov 19, 2020 at 19:45

DKNguyen's user avatar

DKNguyenDKNguyen

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3

It’s not a single word, but tried and true can be used to describe something that has proven to be reliable or effective in the past. It indicates that whatever you’re describing has been around for awhile, and is not terribly modern. Although it may not be the absolute best thing available, it still sees practical use and isn’t obsolete.

answered Nov 18, 2020 at 20:10

Nuclear Hoagie's user avatar

Nuclear HoagieNuclear Hoagie

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Timeless.

For example, «A suit and tie is a timeless look.»

It is much more common to use «timeless» when discussing styles, like fashion and architecture. It would be less common for technology, but it otherwise captures your meaning quite well.

answered Nov 19, 2020 at 11:04

justforplaylists's user avatar

I think the best option here is established, as answered by chasly, however another option could be accepted:

definition of accept

  • consent to receive or undertake (something offered).
  • receive as adequate, valid, or suitable.
  • regard favourably or with approval; welcome.

for a slightly negative connotation, such as a technology grudgingly accepted for want of an alternative:

  • tolerate or submit to (something unpleasant or undesired).

answered Nov 19, 2020 at 13:32

Sam's user avatar

2

Enduring

Long-lasting without significant alteration; continuing through time in the same relative state

answered Nov 19, 2020 at 15:40

Theraot's user avatar

TheraotTheraot

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how about commodity?

in many industries, commodity tech, or commodity processes, are generally considered «industrial strength» and usually lacking «brand new car smell»

answered Nov 19, 2020 at 18:29

him's user avatar

The answer established (by @chasly-supports-monica) seems good to me.

Otherwise, I would also propose tried and true: since it is «tried», it mature and stable, thus probably not modern; and since it is still «true» («functioning accurately») it is obviously not obsolete.

Tested and proved to be worthy or good. (American Heritage)

Used many times in the past and proven to work well:

A cup of warm milk is my tried-and-true remedy for insomnia. (Cambridge Dictionary)

Those sentences would work:

Television is a tried and true piece of technology.

I love web browsers because they are tried and true tools.

answered Nov 20, 2020 at 18:00

fralau's user avatar

fralaufralau

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Dependable

The dictionary definition for dependable is

Trustworthy and reliable

If something is dependable, you can deduce that not only has it been tested, but that it has also persevered. Therefore, although not necessarily (but presumably) it can be considered «mature», and would definitely be considered «stable».

answered Nov 22, 2020 at 0:18

Coco's user avatar

How about conventional.

Definition from Google:

based on or in accordance with what is generally done or believed.

answered Nov 19, 2020 at 17:09

Peter's user avatar

PeterPeter

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Robust.
» Full of health and strength; vigorous. synonym: healthy.» — Wordnik

answered Nov 20, 2020 at 7:04

davidgo's user avatar

davidgodavidgo

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1

I know a lot of English words. None of them clearly convey all four of the meanings you intend without allowing further unintended meanings.

(We’re still developing vocabulary that includes the assumption that technology has a life cycle. Like the changeover from solids to liquids in language describing the behavior of money, the process will take a while.)

Right now, I’d pick “reliable”. It means we’ve found we can rely on it, which implies that it isn’t new, and that it has worked many times under many circumstances.

answered Nov 21, 2020 at 15:42

TNH's user avatar

  • matured
  • sophisticated
  • complete
  • cultivated
  • cultured
  • developed
  • fit
  • grown
  • mellow
  • mellowed
  • perfected
  • prepared
  • prime
  • ready
  • ripe
  • ripened
  • seasoned
  • settled
  • full-blown
  • full-fledged
  • full-grown
  • fully grown
  • in full bloom
  • in one’s prime
  • of age
  • bloom
  • blossom
  • develop
  • evolve
  • grow
  • grow up
  • mellow
  • mushroom
  • ripen
  • advance
  • age
  • arrive
  • culminate
  • flower
  • maturate
  • perfect
  • prime
  • progress
  • round
  • season
  • attain majority
  • become experienced
  • become wise
  • come of age
  • fill out
  • reach adulthood
  • reach majority
  • settle down
  • shoot up

On this page you’ll find 154 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to mature, such as: matured, sophisticated, complete, cultivated, cultured, and developed.

  • decrease
  • halt
  • lessen
  • shrink
  • shrivel
  • stop
  • wither
  • retreat
  • retrogress

Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

TRY USING mature

See how your sentence looks with different synonyms.

How to use mature in a sentence

Sean, who’s one of the savviest China analysts we know, also argues that over the last five years, China’s equity markets have deepened and matured, leaving China’s emerging tech ventures far less dependent on Western exchanges for raising capital.

HSBC WALKS THE TIGHTROPE BETWEEN BEIJING AND THE U.S.CLAYCHANDLERAUGUST 27, 2020FORTUNE

Delete or revise your obsolete content, fix technical errors, regularly produce high-quality new content, and that mature, stagnant blog can quickly get back to 20%, 30%, or even higher year-over-year growth in organic search traffic.

HOW TO TEACH AN OLD BLOG NEW SEO TRICKSTOM PICKAUGUST 27, 2020SEARCH ENGINE WATCH

SYNONYM OF THE DAY

OCTOBER 26, 1985

WORDS RELATED TO MATURE

  • decline
  • deteriorate
  • develop
  • get along
  • grow
  • grow feeble
  • grow old
  • grow up
  • mature
  • mellow
  • push
  • put mileage on
  • ripen
  • wane
  • decline
  • deteriorate
  • develop
  • get along
  • grow
  • grow feeble
  • grow old
  • grow up
  • mature
  • mellow
  • push
  • put mileage on
  • ripen
  • wane
  • blooming
  • cultivated
  • fall
  • mature
  • ripened
  • seasoned
  • altered to
  • assumed form of
  • be converted to
  • be reduced to
  • be reformed
  • be remodeled
  • be transformed into
  • came
  • came to was
  • changed into
  • converted
  • developed into
  • emerged as
  • eventually was
  • grew into
  • inclined
  • matured
  • metamorphosed
  • passed into
  • ripened into
  • shifted
  • turned into
  • turned out
  • waxed
  • alter to
  • assume form of
  • be converted to
  • be reduced to
  • be reformed
  • be remodeled
  • be transformed into
  • change into
  • come
  • come to be
  • convert
  • develop into
  • emerge as
  • eventually be
  • grow into
  • incline
  • mature
  • metamorphose
  • pass into
  • ripen into
  • shift
  • turn into
  • turn out
  • wax
  • alters to
  • assumes form of
  • be converts to
  • be reduces to
  • be reforms
  • be remodels
  • be transforms into
  • changes into
  • comes
  • comes to is
  • converts
  • develops into
  • emerges as
  • eventually is
  • grows into
  • inclines
  • matures
  • metamorphoses
  • passes into
  • ripens into
  • shifts
  • turns into
  • turns out
  • waxes

Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

зрелый, развитой, выдержанный, созревший, созреть, созревать, взрослеть, вылежаться

прилагательное

- зрелый; спелый

mature age — зрелый возраст
mature years — зрелые годы
mature wisdom — мудрость, приходящая с возрастом
he’s got much more mature since then — он очень повзрослел с тех пор
you must learn to behave in a more mature way — ты должен научиться вести себя как взрослый человек

- выдержанный (о вине, бетоне и т. п.)
- доношенный (о ребёнке)
- тщательно обдуманный

mature reflection — тщательное обдумывание
after /on/ mature deliberation — по зрелом размышлении
mature scheme /plan/ — зрелый /хорошо обдуманный/ план

- ком. подлежащий оплате (ввиду наступившего срока)
- созревший, назревший (о нарыве и т. п.)
- уст. созревший, готовый

глагол

- созреть, вполне развиться

his character matured during these years — его характер вполне сформировался за эти годы

- доводить до зрелости, до полного развития

these years matured his character — эти годы сформировали его характер
children mature earlier nowadays — в наши дни дети развиваются быстрее

- тщательно обдумывать, разрабатывать

to mature schemes /plans/ — тщательно /детально/ разработать планы
his plans were not yet matured — его планы ещё не были окончательными /не созрели/

- совершенствовать, отрабатывать; доводить до высокого уровня, совершенства
- доводить до зрелости; выдерживать (о вине, сыре и т. п.)
- вызревать, созревать, достигать нужной кондиции

the grapes mature in the sun — виноград созревает на солнце

- ком. наступать (о сроке платежа)

when does this bill mature? — когда наступает срок платежа по этому векселю?

Мои примеры

Словосочетания

mature judgment — зрелое суждение  
mature forest — спелый лес  
mature phenotype — зрелый [дефинитивный] фенотип  
mature phage — зрелая (внеклеточная) фаговая частица  
mature plasma cell — плазмацит, зрелая плазматическая клетка  
postmitotic mature cell — зрелая дифференцированная клетка  
mature cell — зрелая клетка  
mature embryo — зрелый [сформировавшийся] зародыш  
mature egg — зрелое яйцо  
mature skin — зрелая кожа  

Примеры с переводом

He has a mature outlook on life.

У него зрелый взгляд на жизнь.

Laura is very mature for her age.

Лаура очень развита для своего возраста.

She’s very mature for her age.

Она очень развита для своего возраста.

I need to mature my thoughts.

Мне надо тщательно это обдумать.

Most girls are sexually mature by about 14 years of age.

Большинство девушек становятся половозрелыми примерно в 14 лет.

The olives are pulped, then left to mature.

Оливки очищают от шелухи, а затем оставляют дозревать.

Show-business is a mature industry.

Шоу-бизнес является процветающей индустрией.

ещё 23 примера свернуть

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

Few beers brewed in Britain are matured in the bottle.

Their bodies were mature, but they still behaved like children.

After mature reflection, he concluded that he had been mistaken.

Для того чтобы добавить вариант перевода, кликните по иконке , напротив примера.

Возможные однокоренные слова

immature  — незрелый, молодой, неспелый, недоразвившийся, несозревший, юный, преждевременный
maturate  — развиваться, созреть, нагноиться
maturity  — зрелость, завершенность, совершеннолетие, возмужалость
overmature  — перезрелый, переспелый
matureness  — зрелость, возмужалость, совершеннолетие, завершенность
maturing  — вызревание
maturely  — зрело, здраво

Формы слова

verb
I/you/we/they: mature
he/she/it: matures
ing ф. (present participle): maturing
2-я ф. (past tense): matured
3-я ф. (past participle): matured

When Does Someone Become ‘Old’?

It’s surprisingly hard to find a good term for people in late life.

Runstudio / Getty

Once people are past middle age, they’re old. That’s how life progresses: You’re young, you’re middle-aged, then you’re old.

Of course, calling someone old is generally not considered polite, because the word, accurate though it might be, is frequently considered pejorative. It’s a label that people tend to shy away from: In 2016, the Marist Poll asked American adults if they thought a 65-year-old qualified as old. Sixty percent of the youngest respondents—those between 18 and 29—said yes, but that percentage declined the older respondents were; only 16 percent of adults 60 or older made the same judgment. It seems that the closer people get to old age themselves, the later they think it starts.

Overall, two-thirds of the Marist Poll respondents considered 65 to be “middle-aged” or even “young.” These classifications are a bit perplexing, given that, well, old age has to start sometime. “I wouldn’t say [65] is old,” says Susan Jacoby, the author of Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age, “but I know it’s not middle age—how many 130-year-olds do you see wandering around?”

Read: What happens when we all live to 100?

The word old, with its connotations of deterioration and obsolescence, doesn’t capture the many different arcs a human life can trace after middle age. This linguistic strain has only gotten more acute as average life spans have grown longer and, especially for wealthier people, healthier. “Older adults now have the most diverse life experiences of any age group,” Ina Jaffe, a reporter at NPR who covers aging, told me in an email. “Some are working, some are retired, some are hitting the gym every day, others suffer with chronic disabilities. Some are traveling around the world, some are raising their grandchildren, and they represent as many as three different generations. There’s no one term that can conjure up that variety.”

So if 65-year-olds—or 75-year-olds, or 85-year-olds—aren’t “old,” what are they? As Jaffe’s phrasing suggests, American English speakers are converging on an answer that is very similar to old but has another syllable tacked on as a crucial softener: older. The word is gaining popularity not because it is perfect—it presents problems of its own—but because it seems to be the least imperfect of the many descriptors English speakers have at their disposal.

In general, those terms tend to be fraught or outmoded. Take senior, for instance. “Senior is one of the most common euphemisms for old people, and happens to be the one I hate the most,” Jacoby told me. To her, senior implies that people who receive the label are different, and somehow lesser, than those who don’t. “Think about voters from 18 to 25 … Imagine if a newspaper called them juniors instead of young voters,” she said. (Of course, the word senior can also be used to signify experience and endow prestige—as in senior vice president of marketing—but not all older people interpret it that way in the context of later life.) Additional knocks against the term include its potential ambiguity (inconveniently, it’s also the term for fourth-year high schoolers) and frequent imprecision (it’s often paired with the word citizen, even though not every older resident of the U.S. is an American citizen).

Meanwhile, elderly, a term that was more common a generation ago, is hardly neutral—it’s often associated with frailty and limitation, and older people generally don’t identify with it. “If you ask a room of people at a senior center who there is a member of ‘the elderly,’ you might get only reluctant hands or none,” Clara Berridge, a gerontologist at the University of Washington School of Social Work, posited in an email. “The fact that people don’t often voluntarily relate to this term is a strong reason to not apply it to them.”

Other, less common words don’t seem fit for everyday use either. Aging is accurate but vague—everyone is aging all the time. Retiree doesn’t apply to an older person who never worked or hasn’t stopped working, and, further, can suggest that someone’s employment status is her defining feature. Geriatric is precise, but sounds far too clinical. Elder can be appropriative—the word is common in some Native American and African American communities—and besides, could imply wisdom in people who lack it.

Euphemisms, too, are clearly out: References to one’s “golden years” and to old people as “sages” or “super adults” strain to gloss over the realities of old age. “Phrases such as ‘70 is the new 50’ reflect a ‘pos­itive aging’ discourse, which suggests that the preferred way of being old is to not be old at all, but rather to maintain some image of middle-age functionality and appearance,” Berridge wrote in a 2017 academic article she co-authored.

Read: What it’s like to date after middle age

Of course, old hasn’t gone entirely out of circulation. In fact, it was popular with some of the experts I spoke with, who were unfazed by it. “I actually think those of us who are in our 60s and beyond ought to reclaim old,” Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell University, told me. “[For] someone like me, who’s lived at least two-thirds of his natural life span, I have no objection at all to being called an old person, but I understand that has connotations for people.”

Those “connotations” get at one reason the aforementioned panoply of terms remains inadequate, and why searching for a better word than old isn’t an unnecessary concession to older people’s sensitivities: Language can’t eradicate society-wide biases against old age. “I’d argue that the reason there isn’t consensus about a preferred term has everything to do with ageism rather than that the terms themselves are problematic,” Elana Buch, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, said in an email. “As long as being ‘old’ is something to avoid at all costs (literally, ‘anti-aging’ is a multibillion-dollar industry), people will want to avoid being identified as such.”

Aware of these biases, Buch has come to favor the terms older adults and older people in both academic writing and everyday conversation, explaining that those phrases are “simple, descriptive, and foreground the personhood/adulthood of the people being described.” Pillemer made a similar point: Unlike other categories and labels, older is a descriptor that “people can move into without having it seem like it’s a whole different category of human being.”

“I think you’re going to see a movement almost entirely to ‘older adults’ or ‘older people,’ ” Pillemer said. “I don’t know anybody, either in advocacy, professional gerontology, or personally, who finds those terms offensive.”

That movement has already begun. Kory Stamper, a lexicographer and an author, told me that the phrase older adults has become much more common in the past 15 years, a period of time during which senior and senior citizen have seen sharp declines in usage. That’s according to the Corpus of Contemporary American English, a database of more than 600 million words collected from newspapers, novels, speeches, and other sources that Stamper said offers a “quick view of modern American English.” The database also indicates that elderly, mature, and aging have been falling in popularity over the past 30 years.

Older may be catching on because it seems to irritate the smallest number of people. Ina Jaffe, the NPR journalist, found early on in her reporting on old age that people had strong reactions to the existing linguistic palette. Several years ago, curious to get a better sense of which terms people liked and which they didn’t, she helped arrange a poll on the NPR website soliciting opinions. Older adult was “the winner … though you can’t say there was any real enthusiasm for it among our poll takers. Just 43 percent of them said they liked it,” she explained on air. Elder and senior had roughly 30 percent approval ratings.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that there isn’t any good term for older adults besides, well, older adults,” Jaffe told me recently. Other important shapers of language have come to that conclusion as well. Older has become the preferred nomenclature in many academic journals and dictionary definitions. The New York Times’ stylebook says of the word elderly, “Use this vague term with care,” and advises, “For general references, consider older adults, or, sparingly, seniors.” Juliana Horowitz, a researcher at the Pew Research Center, which often segments its survey respondents along demographic lines, said the organization tends to go with older adults.

(A popular alternative, of course, is to forgo broad labels and specify the ages in question. Pew often mentions the age cutoffs for its generational cohorts, and the New York Times stylebook prefers people in their 70s or people over 80 to elderly. Referring to a broader group, “A term we often use is people age 50 and up and/or people 50-plus,” said Jo Ann Jenkins, the CEO of AARP. “It’s factual and commonsense.”)

Older is not without its downsides, though. First, it’s not common to say “younger people,” but, rather, just “young people”—an unpleasant asymmetry, and an implicit acknowledgment that young doesn’t carry disagreeable associations like old does. Second, it is a relative term without a clear comparison: Older … than whom, exactly? And third, as Berridge, the gerontologist, pointed out, “‘older adult’ implies a younger adult age as the unspoken norm.” Still, she told me, “I use ‘older adult’ because it seems like the least-bad option at this point in time.”

Replacements for all these existing terms—older as well as the words it’s gradually displacing—have been proposed over the years. For at least a couple of decades, gerontological researchers have been making a distinction between the young old (typically those in their 60s and 70s) and the old old (definitions vary, but 85 and up is common). Another academic term is third age, which refers to the period after retirement but before the fourth age of infirmity and decline (which some would argue unjustly legitimizes distinctions based on physical abilities). Perennials, an inventive, plant-inspired label intended to convey lasting value and consistent renewal, is another contender.

But none of these has caught on outside the realms of academic research and op-eds. “If I had to pick a track down which the language will gallop,” said Stamper, the lexicographer, “then my guess is older is probably the word that we’ll default to, because we haven’t taken any of these other coinages and run with them yet.”

In the absence of a neologism that sticks, older is a more or less satisfactory solution to this linguistic problem. But that adjective, like any other term associated with old age, is silent on how old people must be for it to be applied to them. Attempts to work that out get at the true essence of life’s later stages.

Policy makers have their own narrow answer. “In the research world and in the policy world, [65] is the number people use to demarcate entry into old age,” says Laura Carstensen, the director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity. “It’s been reified: You’re eligible for Social Security, for Medicare …and the research literature is focused on people 65 and older, so even though 65 doesn’t mean anything in any real way, it has come to represent real things.”

But this number, 65, is more or less arbitrary—there’s certainly no biological basis for it. “For policy-planning purposes, ‘over 75’ is a much more meaningful demographic than ‘over 65,’ ” says Karl Pillemer. Statistically, that’s the age when people become significantly more likely to develop a chronic disease, he notes. “People between the ages of 65 and 75 are often more similar to people in middle age.”

Even then, focusing on a particular number seems misguided. “Chronological age is a very poor measure of almost anything by the time you get to 65,” Carstensen says. “Take two 65-year-old people … One can [have dementia], and the other could be, you know, a Supreme Court justice. So it doesn’t tell you much.”

Picking other delineators—perhaps employment status or dependence on caregivers—might get around the issue Carstensen articulated but could introduce other problems; those two examples in particular would risk putting undue emphasis on people’s ability to work or live independently.

Ideally, a definition of old age would capture a sense of things ending, or at least getting closer to ending. All those people who call 65 “middle-aged” aren’t delusional—they probably just don’t want to be denied their right to have ambitions and plans for the stretch of their life that’s still ahead of them, even if that stretch is a lot shorter than the one behind them.

Susan Jacoby, the author of Never Say Die, suggested a definition of old age that addresses this elegantly. She told me that, in her 20s, she made lifelong friends, some of them 10 or 15 years older than she was, while working at The Washington Post. Now that she’s 74, she comes across obituaries for those old friends. “What I think of as old is an age when you start seeing people you know in the obituary column,” she told me. “I think of middle age as a time when you’re not afraid to look at the obituaries, because you assume that the people who have died you’re not going to know.” Even if her definition doesn’t help us figure out how to refer to others, it is poignant, personalized, and flexible—and will likely age well.


На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.


На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.

лучше, чем

лучшего слова, чем


Biology needs a better word than error for the driving force in evolution.



Биология нуждается в каком-то ином слове, лучшем, чем слово ошибка, для обозначения направляющей силы эволюции…


We must have a better word than ‘prefabricated’.


I can’t think of a better word than «singular,» but they’re just so unique.



Я не могу придумать лучшего слова, чем «единичное», но они настолько уникальны.


With respect to paragraph 5, a better word than «punish» could certainly be found.


I think there’s a better word than hideous.


Maybe ‘facilitator’ is a better word than ‘teacher’.


Perhaps that is a better word than grateful.


I can’t find a better word than that.


In my poor English, I cannot find a better word than sloppy.



С моим плохим английским я не могу подобрать более точного слова, чме неряшливость.


Steve: Anxious is probably a better word than excited.


And I think the word «vocational» is a much better word than in many cases a community college.



И я думаю, что слово «профессиональный» намного лучше, чем во многих случаях «общественный» колледж.


I don’t have a better word than awesome.


I would like to say I’m a «free thinker», a better word than both agnostic and atheist.



Я бы сказал, что я «вольнодумец» («free thinker» — англ.), это точнее, нежели агностик или атеист.


What is that? I’m trying to think of a better word than «dread».


Perhaps Activator is a better word than an activist.


«There is no better word than ‘catastrophe», to describe what happened in 1917.



«Нет лучшего слова, чем «катастрофа», для описания того, что произошло в 1917 году.


«Maybe excited is a better word than relieved,» he continues, after a prolonged moment of reflection.



«Возможно, возбуждение — это лучше, чем успокоение», — продолжает актер после длительной паузы.


Admiration betokens in itself a kind of respect It borders on liking, admiring — it’s a much, much better word than love.



Оно граничит с чувством симпатии, восхищение… это слово гораздо, гораздо лучше, чем «любовь».


«Congregation» is a much better word than «church».


I think ‘knew’ may be a better word than ‘heard.’

Ничего не найдено для этого значения.

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