maturity
/məˈtjʊər.ɪ.ti/- 1.
The quality of thinking and behaving in a sensible, calm, and responsible way. It reflects good judgment and emotional balance, often developed through experience.
- She handled the conflict with surprising maturity.
- His maturity impressed the interviewers more than his grades.
- Maturity means knowing when to stay silent.
- 2.
The stage when a person, animal, or plant has finished growing and is fully developed physically or biologically.
- This oak tree reaches full maturity in about fifty years.
- Children develop at their own pace before reaching maturity.
- 3.
In finance, the date when a bond, fixed deposit, or loan agreement ends and the full amount of money must be repaid.
- The bond pays its full value back at maturity.
- She reinvested the funds on the maturity date.
Adinary Nuance
Maturity is often confused with three close neighbors: adulthood, wisdom, and experience. Adulthood is purely about age or legal status — you reach adulthood at 18, regardless of how you act. Maturity, by contrast, is a quality of behavior and mindset — a teenager can show great maturity, and a 40-year-old can lack it entirely. Wisdom implies deep, hard-won knowledge built over a long life, often with a philosophical tone; maturity is more about everyday emotional control and sound judgment. Experience refers to the events you have lived through, while maturity is what you actually internalize from those events. In IELTS and academic writing, maturity is the precise, high-register choice when you mean "the quality of being emotionally or mentally developed."
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- Sự trưởng thành
- Spanish
- Madurez
- Chinese
- 成熟
- Japanese
- 成熟
- Korean
- 성숙
Etymology
From Latin "maturitas" (ripeness), derived from "maturus" (ripe, timely). The word entered English in the 15th century via Old French "maturité," first referring to physical ripeness and later extending to emotional and intellectual development.
Common phrases
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- Is 'maturity' the same as 'adulthood'?
- No. Adulthood is about age — reaching 18 or 21. Maturity is about behavior and emotional quality. A young person can be very mature, and an older person can still lack maturity. In essays and formal writing, they are not interchangeable.
- Can I use 'maturity' to describe a young person?
- Yes, and this is actually a very common and correct usage. Saying someone 'showed maturity' is a compliment meaning they acted wisely and calmly beyond what you might expect for their age.
- Is 'maturity' a formal word? Can I use it in IELTS writing?
- Yes, it is an academic and formal word — an excellent choice for IELTS essays, especially in topics about education, personal development, or social behavior. It is appropriate in both Task 1 (formal reporting) and Task 2 (argument essays).
- What does 'maturity' mean in banking or finance?
- In finance, 'maturity' refers to the end date of a financial product — when a bond, fixed deposit, or loan must be fully repaid. You will often see this in the phrase 'maturity date' on financial documents.