How to say "puberty" in Japanese

• 思春期ししゅんきCommon
  nounThe common word for puberty as a stage of growth, and it also extends to adolescence generally. Use it in most contexts, from everyday talk to writing on child development.
  自分じぶんの思春期ししゅんきを振り返ふりかえると、いつも憂ゆううつな気分きぶんになる。↗

  I cannot look back on my adolescence without feeling depressed.
• 春の目覚めはるのめざめ
  expressionA figurative expression, literally 'the awakening of spring,' that evokes the dawning of adolescent feelings rather than puberty as a physical stage; it is seldom the word you want for the ordinary sense.
• 春機発動期しゅんきはつどうき
  nounA technical term for puberty as a physiological stage, the kind of wording you meet in medical contexts; for everyday use, 思春期 is the word you want.
• 第二次性徴期だいにじせいちょうき
  nounA clinical term that frames puberty as the period in which secondary sex characteristics develop; it fits medical or academic writing on physical development, while 思春期 serves for general talk about growing up.
• 破瓜はか
  nounChiefly a literary word for a girl's sixteenth year, with pubescence as a secondary sense; for puberty as a stage of development it is rarely the word you want.

For puberty as a life stage, 思春期 is the common everyday word; 第二次性徴期 and 春機発動期 are technical alternatives, while 「春の目覚め」 and 破瓜 are figurative or literary expressions that rarely fit ordinary use.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• 思春期ししゅんきpuberty
• 春の目覚めはるのめざめpuberty
• 春機発動期しゅんきはつどうきpuberty
• 第二次性徴期だいにじせいちょうきpuberty
• 破瓜はかage 16 (of a girl)
• 成熟期せいじゅくきperiod of maturity
• 破瓜期はかき(girl's arrival at) puberty
• 変声期へんせいきperiod when one's voice changes
• 春はるadolescence