childhood

From Middle English childhod, from Old English ċildhād (“childhood”), from ċild (“child”) + -hād (“-hood”), equivalent to child +‎ -hood.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʃaɪldhʊd/

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• Hyphenation: child‧hood

childhood (countable and uncountable, plural childhoods)

1. (chiefly uncountable) The state of being a child.
   • 2013 September-October, Terrie Moffitt et al., “Lifelong Impact of Early Self-Control”, in American Scientist:

     To our own surprise, our 40-year study of 1,000 children revealed that childhood self-control strongly predicts adult success, in people of high or low intelligence, in rich or poor, and does so throughout the entire population, with a step change in health, wealth, and social success at every level of self-control.

2. The time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎:

     He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood.

3. (by extension) The early stages of development of something.
   • Shakespeare

     the childhood of our joy

• second childhood

• childhood on Wikipedia.Wikipedia