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Perfect Stranger Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

Vocabulary question no. 65: what do we call that stage of life?

Dear All,

I'd like to ask you if there's a noun in English referring to the stage of our life when we are over 40 or 50 years old. We've got words such as childhood (when we are kids) or adulthood (when we are adults) What about being 40, 50 or 60 years old?

Thanks
  

Top answer

) The exact age range is something of a matter of opinion. Dictionaries give 40-60 or 45-65, for example, but 40 seems too young to me. I think most 40-year-olds would hate to be considered "middle-aged".

  • ) The exact age range is something of a matter of opinion.
  • Dictionaries give 40-60 or 45-65, for example, but 40 seems too young to me.
  • I think most 40-year-olds would hate to be considered "middle-aged".
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5 Answers
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middle age (n.)
middle-aged (adj.)

The exact age range is something of a matter of opinion. Dictionaries give 40-60 or 45-65, for example, but 40 seems too young to me. I think most 40-year-olds would hate to be considered "middle-aged".
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GPYThe exact age range is something of a matter of opinion.
Indeed.

Up to the some time in my late teens or early twenties, I used to think pf people in their forties as being middle-aged and being old at about 60. As I grew older, my ideas changed. Now, at 68, I think of middle age as beginning at about 50.There are so many very active people in the
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Thank you GPY. Thank you Fivejedjon.

Perhaps I didn't really express myself clearly enough and my question might have been misleading... What I'm looking for is a word that describes the rest of our life after we've reached 40 or 50 years old.
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I can't think of one word that means that. You may have to resort to a phrase, such as "life after 40" or "the latter half of one's life" or something. To describe the people, you can say "the over-40s". Do you have a sentence context?
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Thanks GPY. Unforunately there's no context. It was just a question that came to my mind.

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