adulting

noun

adult·​ing ə-ˈdəl-tiŋ 

informal

: the act or practice of attending to the ordinary tasks required of a responsible adult

… between work, kids, and general adulting, we don't always have a ton of time to make dinner …

—Justina Huddleston

One of the biggest steps a young person can take toward successful adulting is to look past the short-term of today and begin to plan further out.

—Mark C. Perna

Hosting a dinner party or get-together can be daunting—especially for young adults hosting for the first time, and even for those with years of adulting experience following a two-year hiatus.

—PR Newswire

Adult became adulting as a generation entered that period feeling somewhat unprepared, wanting to express that maturity means not only reaching a certain point in your life, but also attending to the concomitant tasks.

—Caleb Madison

Examples of adulting in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Plenty of enticing international series touch down on the platform this month, from season 2 of the Turkish hit Graveyard to the premiere of the Dutch adulting comedy Roosters, featuring rising international star Jeroen Spitzenberger. —Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 1 Feb. 2025

All the adulting and parenting fell to me, alone and grieving: coordinating third grade homework, cooking, chauffeuring, reading board books at bedtime, paying the mortgage, picking up dog poop. —Charlotte Maya, CNN, 7 Aug. 2024

Take a minute to realize how adulting is a scam and every day feels the exact same. —R29 Team, refinery29.com, 3 May 2024

Under that definition, who’d want to do any adulting at all? —Claire Cohen, Vogue, 15 Jan. 2023

But it was built around an exploration of adulting, and the video received tens of millions of views. —Matt Stevens, New York Times, 9 Aug. 2023

There wasn’t much room for making mistakes in this version of adulting—which is, of course, the only way to become truly adult. —Claire Cohen, Vogue, 15 Jan. 2023

After a long day of adulting, a Shakti acupressure mat can help relax your body. —Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 6 May 2022

But when my daughter arrived, my free time evaporated in a manic fugue of playdates, pediatrician visits, and the competitive adulting of Brooklyn parenthood. —Tom Vanderbilt, Wired, 19 Oct. 2020

Word History

Etymology

adult entry 3 + -ing entry 1

First Known Use

2013, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for adulting

• consulting
• exulting
• insulting
• resulting