the time of life when sex glands become functional

The earliest age at which persons are capable of begetting or bearing children, usually considered, in temperate climates, to be about fourteen years in males and twelve in females.

The period when a plant first bears flowers.

The earliest age at which persons can beget or bear children.

The age at which the reproductive organs become developed, 13 to 16 years in boys, 12 to 14 in girls; in law the ages of presumptive puberty are 12 years in girls and 14 years in boys.

Applied to male capable of producing pregnancy in the female; and applied to female capable of conceiving.

The age of full development: early manhood or womanhood.

First manhood or womanhood.

Opening manhood or womanhood.

The age at which persons are capable of procreating or bearing children.

The age at which persons are capable of begetting or bearing children; maturity; in law, the age of 14 years in boys, and of 12 in girls.

Sexual maturity.

Alone of all the tribes in the Northwestern region the Yurok held no dance or public ceremony on the occasion of a girl's puberty. – The Religion of the Indians of California by A. L. Kroeber

A third, minor ceremony, the Brush dance, completes the series of public ceremonies in this region, the remaining dances being held only on occasion of war, a girl's puberty, or the initiation of a shaman. – The Religion of the Indians of California by A. L. Kroeber

But the rite which concerned the whole tribe, the essence of which was entrance into the tribe, was the rite of initiation at puberty. –  by

When Junior Nipe fails his puberty tests, when Mama and Papa Nipe are sent to their final reward, I have no doubt that there is sadness in the hearts of their loved ones as the honored T- bones are passed around the table. – Anything You Can Do by Gordon Randall Garrett

On the other hand, the Kaonra Ahirs of Mandla make a practice of not getting a girl married till the signs of puberty have appeared. – The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II by R. V. Russell

For this reason, although they all let their hair grow long after the age of puberty, yet it was especially in time of danger that they took pains to have it smooth and evenly parted, remembering a saying of Lykurgus about the hair, that it made a well- looking man look handsomer, and an ugly man look more ferocious. – Plutarch's Lives, Volume I (of 4) by Plutarch

It is evident that a change like that of puberty is in course of preparation at every instant from birth, and even before birth, and that the ageing up to that crisis consists, in part at least, of this gradual preparation. – Creative Evolution by Henri Bergson

These tattoo females on the forehead when they attain the age of puberty, a straight horizontal line being drawn from the parting of the hair down the forehead and nose. – The Khasis by P. R. T. Gurdon

Before I left Madame d'Urfe, I told her that the lad might be he who should make her to be born again, but that she would spoil all if she did not wait for him to attain the age of puberty. – The Memoires of Casanova, Complete The Rare Unabridged London Edition Of 1894, plus An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Symons by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

Their children went about without clothes, or, at any rate, wore none until the age of puberty. – History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12) by G. Maspero

9 To a stranger, or a child above the age of puberty whom a man has instituted heir, he cannot appoint a substitute to succeed him if he take and die within a certain time: he has only the power to bind him by a trust to convey the inheritance to another either wholly or in part; the law relating to which subject will be explained in its proper place. – The Institutes of Justinian by Caesar Flavius Justinian

2 A person who has reached the age of puberty cannot be compelled to have a curator, except for the purpose of conducting a suit: for curators, unlike guardians, can be appointed for a particular matter. – The Institutes of Justinian by Caesar Flavius Justinian

It is reasonable to assume that almost without exception these ten thousand women had been vaccinated from one to three times before the age of puberty. – Nature Cure by Henry Lindlahr

Thus, Europe saw with astonishment the best and most indulgent of parents at war with his whole family; three boys, scarcely arrived at the age of puberty, required a great monarch, in the full vigour of his age and height of his reputation, to dethrone himself in their favour; and several princes not ashamed to support them in these unnatural and absurd pretensions. – The History of England, Volume I by David Hume

He permitted also those above the age of puberty to let their hair grow, as he thought that they thus appeared taller, more manly, and more terrible in the eyes of the enemy. – The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece by Various

This lack of training in a child who possesses an unstable nervous system, creates the proper environment for the habit of bed wetting- which often marches steadily on until puberty. – The Mother and Her Child by William S. Sadler Lena K. Sadler

Usually at puberty the trouble ends, and while no amount of whipping will correct the difficulty, the promise of rewards, an appeal to the pride, correction of dietetic errors, the establishment of regular times to empty the bladder, the removal of all reflex causes such as adenoids, need of circumcision, worms, etc. – The Mother and Her Child by William S. Sadler Lena K. Sadler