sweet sixteen en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Meanings
-
(US, informal) A girl's sixteenth birthday, or sixteenth-birthday party and a related coming of age party.
But one tradition associated with the age hangs on: the Sweet Sixteen celebration. Symptomatic of at least a partial swing away from counterculture sentiments, the Sweet Sixteen party—relatively dormant during the anti‐Establishment turmoil of the late 60's and early 70's—is becoming popular again as a way of marking the 16th birthday.
1978 January 4, Lynn Ames, “Sweet Sixteen: A Rite That Persists”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 Oct 2021:
- Sixteen.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| sweet 16 | alternative | lexicographic | |
| sweet sixteens | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Relateds
bat mitzvah · debut · quinceañera · sweet seventeen · quinceaños · cotillion · sweet thirteen · sweet fifteen