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Minority, majority; infancy, adulthood; nonage, full age - here you have the three contrasting pairs that constitute the vocabulary of legal age. Minority, infancy, and nonage are synonyms that mean the state or time of being under legal age. Majority, adulthood, and full age mean the state or time of being of legal age. (All these words, particularly infancy and adulthood, have other meanings as well, of course.) Nonage came to us by way of Middle English from an Anglo-French union of non- and age, which combine to mean not of age.
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“Nonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonage. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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