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Is there a term for men in their twenties and thirties? I'm specifically asking in the context of men although I imagine there might be a gender neutral adjective.

  • "Young man" seems like it could encompass teenagers.
  • "Young adult man" seems the same
  • "Post-adolescent" seems again teenager-ish
  • "Pre-middle age"?

This is for an academic research project that describes the lives of men who are out of high-school (and maybe college) but before they marry (hopefully) in their mid-late 30s. The student is using "men in their twenties and thirties" but we were hoping there was something more succinct.

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    Doesn’t it seem like “before they marry in their mid-late 30s” is dreadfully full of invalid assumptions?
    – tchrist ♦
    Sep 30, 2016 at 20:44
  • Yes, some men don't marry into their 40s 50s 60s and so forth.
    – RoboKaren
    Sep 30, 2016 at 20:58
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    @RoboKaren And a lot of men marry in their twenties, some even in their teens.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Sep 30, 2016 at 21:56
  • Seems like the point is “single adult males” rather than any particular upper age bound. I.e., “out of high school = adult, before they marry = single.”
    – Jim
    Sep 30, 2016 at 23:18
  • Her sample doesn't include middle aged men (40s-50s).
    – RoboKaren
    Sep 30, 2016 at 23:40

2 Answers 2

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According to Wikipedia, "young adult"hood for psychologists is in the neighborhood of 20-39/40 year-olds, which would fit your student's population fairly well. There is clearly some variability; in addition to that pointed out in the article, for example, the American Psychological Association considers 18-29 to be the young adult age group, and 30-39 is called thirties, in its PsycINFO database. However, I think if the term were defined up front, it would be well understood (and clearly does not include younger teens).

I would therefore suggest Young adult males (this sounds better to me than young adult men, since the sexes are generally divided into male and female—see "Population" in the document linked above).

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  • And you can vary it and also say "male young adults", "young male adults" and "young males".
    – aparente001
    Oct 1, 2016 at 2:28
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'Tricenarian' probably is the word for a person of age between 30-39.

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