adulting
(slang) Activities typically associated with adulthood.
Etymology timeline
Born ~2008 · 1 year of recorded useSeen in the wild
Kissing puffins, because adulting is optional even for seabirds
It'll all still be here when you're ready :D I'm in a similar position ATM but not from exams etc., just 'that stage in adulting' ;P
Oggi talmente tanto adulting che sto parlando di investimenti.
“I took a timeout from adulting to do a quick thing”
A day of being "productive" out in the Big Blue Room, aka adulting and whatnot. Necessary spoon-spend, tomorrow is another day.
Definitions
(slang) Activities typically associated with adulthood.
“I just finished paying off my credit cards. All that damn money. I hate adulting.”
“1300 bucks later and a new stove is on its way. Stupid adulting.”
““I took a timeout from adulting to do a quick thing””
““I took a timeout from adulting to do a quick thing””
— Bluesky· May 2026“A day of being "productive" out in the Big Blue Room, aka adulting and whatnot. Necessary spoon-spend, tomorrow is another day.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“I just finished paying off my credit cards. All that damn money. I hate adulting.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“1300 bucks later and a new stove is on its way. Stupid adulting.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Hardest part of adulting for me now is trying to decide how I want to beg for fiscal reprieve and worrying if asking for help is inappropriate, a bad thing, or a sign of my incompetence as an adult.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
Comments
(nonstandard) Adultery.
"adulting" means adultery. It is one of many casual words teens pick up from friends, social media, music or sport, and on its own it carries no particular warning. If you hear your teen use it, it is fair to ask what they mean by it in their friend group, since meanings drift quickly. Asking out of curiosity rather than alarm tends to keep the conversation open and useful.
"adulting" is informal English meaning adultery. It is used widely across English varieties. A more formal or neutral equivalent would be something like "adultery" expressed in standard vocabulary. A common mistake is to assume "adulting" can replace its standard equivalent in every register; keep it for spoken or casual situations and use the formal form in writing. If you are a B2 or C1 learner, it is useful to recognise this word when you hear or read it, but think carefully about whether the situation really calls for it before using it yourself.
“Kissing puffins, because adulting is optional even for seabirds”
— Bluesky· May 2026“It'll all still be here when you're ready :D I'm in a similar position ATM but not from exams etc., just 'that stage in adulting' ;P”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Oggi talmente tanto adulting che sto parlando di investimenti.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Adulting is a comedy podcast hosted by Michelle Buteau and Jordan Carlos and produced by WNYC Studios.”
“Adulting is a neologism for growing up that became popular on English-speaking social media in the second half of the 2010s.”
Comments
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🗺️About Regional & Other slang
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.
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Semantically related
- adulting coded75%
Describes an object, habit, product, or behaviour that radiates the quiet, practical energy of someone who has their adult life together — not glamorous, not aspirational, just genuinely, reassuringly functional. A weekly pill organiser is adulting coded. So is owning a label maker, having a separate savings account for car maintenance, or buying the non-fancy version of something because it's actually better. Adulting coded things carry no irony — they're the honest, unsexy markers of a life being managed competently.
- adulting maxxing75%
The act of throwing yourself into adult responsibilities with obsessive, almost competitive intensity — optimising your budgets, automating your bills, batch-cooking every Sunday, and generally treating the logistics of adult life like a game you are determined to win at maximum efficiency. Adulting maxxing is part admirable discipline and part exhausting overcorrection, usually triggered by a period of genuine chaos or the dawning realisation that nobody else is going to sort this out for you. The internet views it with equal parts respect and concern.
- adulting mode73%
The intentional mental state of switching off your chaotic, avoidant, or fun-first tendencies and temporarily becoming a responsible, functioning adult who handles the things. Adulting mode is almost always temporary and often dramatically announced — it is activated to get through tax returns, apartment hunting, difficult phone calls, or any cluster of tasks that have been putting off for too long. The declaration itself is a kind of psychological trick, framing responsibility as a mode you choose rather than a permanent identity.
- adulting god69%
Someone who has mastered the tedious, invisible infrastructure of adult life with a level of competence that seems almost supernatural to everyone still figuring out how to budget or remember to water a plant. The adulting god has their insurance documents filed, their vitamins organised by day of the week, their car serviced on schedule, and somehow manages to make it all look effortless. The title is often bestowed with a mixture of genuine awe and self-deprecating comparison, as in: how are you this sorted and we're the same age?