childhood

The period of your life when you were a child.

• I spent my childhood by the sea.
• He remembers little about his early childhood.
• Were you friends during childhood?

How to use it: in/during childhood (She learned to swim during childhood.)

Common phrases: during childhood, childhood memories, early childhood

The state of being a child rather than an adult.

• Every child deserves a happy childhood.
• Early responsibility robbed him of his childhood.
• Their work explores childhood and adulthood.

Opposites: adulthood

Common phrases: childhood innocence, childhood development, end of childhood