Adult can also be used to describe something not suitable for children. Things labeled as adult entertainment, for example, often include explicit sexual content.

Your childhood punishments actually become your adult goals #OnceYouHitACertainAge pic.twitter.utilizando/a1DvCT8DNN

As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts.

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Conversely, one may legally be an adult but possess non-e of the maturity and responsibility that may define an adult character.

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But, while older people felt more grown-up on average, even our oldest age group—those aged 60 to 77 years—reported that they still didn’t feel like an adult all the time.

Then there is the psychological definition: Someone who is self-sufficient and responsible for her or his own decisions.

behaving in an intelligent and responsible way; typical of what is expected of an adult synonym grown-up1

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adult.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these Adult List examples.

At first, the dynamic seems ambiguous: closer to that between a mom and her barely adult son than a wife and her husband. —

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It was to be verbally adroit: witty in an adult manner, through innuendo, like Mae West, understatement, like William Powell, or humor that was caustic or mordant, like Bette Davis’s. Even the laconic John Wayne had a way with words, with his slow western drawl exuding emotion: at times wry or amused or contemptuous. Above all, it was marked by a style that dignified and characterized by a certain grace that seems to have disappeared.

The concept of “emerging adulthood” acknowledges the varied levels of independence exhibited by young people and reflects the process of personal development and “finding oneself”.