age

Definition of Age

(noun) The number of years an individual has lived.

Example of Age

• A centenarian has lived for at least 100 years.
  

Age Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: age

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /eɪdʒ/
• British English – /eɪdʒ/

Usage Note

• Plural: ages

Related Quotation

• “In our society [United States], one of the most difficult transitions is the passage to old age. We are taught to fear aging in this society, and many people spend a lot of time and money trying to keep looking young. Unlike many other societies, ours does not revere the elderly, but instead devalues them, making the aging process even more difficult” (Andersen and Taylor 2011:91).

Related Video

Additional Information

• Word origin of “age” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Hockey, Jennifer, and Allison James. 2003. Social Identities across the Life Course. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Holmes, Ellen R., and Lowell D. Holmes. 1995. Other Cultures, Elder Years. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Pilcher, Jane. 1995. Age and Generation in Modern Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Vincent, John A. 2003. Old Age. London: Routledge.
• United Nations Programme on Ageing: un.org

Related Terms

• ageism
• aging
• gerontology
• life course
• life expectancy
• primary aging
• secondary aging
• senescence
• status

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Reference

Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Works Consulted

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Macmillan. (N.d.) Macmillan Dictionary. (https://www.macmillandictionary.com/).

Marsh, Ian, and Mike Keating, eds. 2006. Sociology: Making Sense of Society. 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Age

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “age.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved September 17, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/age/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

age. (2015). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/age/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “age.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed September 17, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/age/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“age.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2015. Web. 17 Sep. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/age/>.