underage

underage — adjective

1. describes someone who is not old enough by law to do a particular thing, such as

1.adjectiveB1
Definition

describes someone who is not old enough by law to do a particular thing, such as buy alcohol, drive a car, or get married

Example

Rachel showed her passport at the club entrance to prove she was not underage.

predicative: prove [someone] is not underage

The shop assistant told Mayumi she looked underage and refused to sell her beer.

Common collocations
  • be underage
  • look underage
  • still underage
  • underage drinker
Synonyms
  • minor

    Noun form referring to a person below the legal age; underage is an adjective

  • juvenile

    More formal, often used in legal or judicial contexts

  • under-aged

    Alternative spelling with a hyphen, less common

Antonyms
  • of age

    Having reached the legal age for a particular activity

  • adult

    A person who has reached the legal age of adulthood

Grammar Patterns

be underage

underage + person noun

Usage Note

Can be used either predicatively (She is underage) or attributively before a noun referring to a person (underage drinker). The predicative form is more common in everyday speech.

Common Mistakes

He is an underage' (using underage as a noun).
He is underage' or 'He is a minor.
Underage is an adjective, not a noun.

2. describes activities or situations that involve people who are below the legal a

2.adjectiveB2
Definition

describes activities or situations that involve people who are below the legal adult age

Example

The new law makes underage marriage illegal across the whole country.

attributive: underage marriage

Ada read a government report about underage drinking in her town.

attributive: underage drinking

Common collocations
  • underage drinking
  • underage marriage
  • underage gambling
  • underage employment
  • underage smoking
Synonyms
  • youth

    Noun form; less specific and does not carry the same legal implication

  • minor

    Noun; can convey a similar idea but requires restructuring the sentence

Grammar Patterns

underage + activity noun

Usage Note

Almost always used attributively before a noun that names an activity or situation, such as drinking, marriage, employment, or gambling. This sense does not describe people directly.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Underage, minor, and juvenile all relate to people below a legal age, but they differ in grammatical role and register. Underage is an adjective describing someone's status of being too young for a specific activity (an underage drinker, she is underage). Minor is a noun that refers to the person themself (a minor cannot sign a contract) and is the standard term in legal contexts. Juvenile is more formal and often appears in legal or judicial language, especially in compound terms like juvenile court or juvenile delinquency. For everyday conversation, underage (adjective) or minor (noun) are more natural. Example: 'The club banned underage customers' versus 'The club banned minors.'

minor ↗juvenileunderage ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • under the legal age

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Formed by joining the prefix 'under-' (meaning below) with the noun 'age' (from Old French 'aage', ultimately from Latin 'aetas'). The word has been used in English since the late 1500s to refer to someone not yet old enough by law.