What does "tweenager" mean?

A young person who is not yet a teenager (being less than thirteen years old), but starting to act like one: generally ten to twelve years old.

What is a synonym for "tweenager"?

Common synonyms include: betweenager, preteen, tween.

Pronounced //ˈtwiːnˌeɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)//.

//ˈtwiːnˌeɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A young person who is not yet a teenager (being less than thirteen years old), but starting to act like one: generally ten to twelve years old.
"Your eight to twelve year old is in the gray area between early childhood and the teen years. He is a child in the middle—a “tweenager.”"

"Your eight to twelve year old is in the gray area between early childhood and the teen years. He is a child in the middle—a “tweenager.”"

Blend of 'tween + teenager. Attested as early as the 1950s, but popularized in the late 20th or early 21st century.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.