What is the Latin word for childhood?

The usual Latin words for “childhood” are īnfāns, pueritia, aetās. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“childhood” in Latin

īnfānsspeechless, inarticulate; newborn; childish, foolish pueritiaboyhood, childhood, youth; innocence; childishness, callowness aetāsthe period of a life: lifetime, lifespan; time of life, period or stage of life, age; an undefined, relatively long peri

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

childhood

prima aetas: prima aetatis tempora (general term): infantia: infantiae anni (the time when the child can not (or not quite) speak): pueritia :aetas puerilis (boyhood): from childhood, a prima (or ab ineunte) aetate; a prima infantia (Tac., Ann., 1, 4, 3); ab initio aetatis; a primis aetatis temporibus; a parvo or parvulo; a puero (and, in plur., a parvis or parvulis, a pueris, of several, as well as if one speaks of himself in the plur.): a teneris, ut Graeci dicunt, unguiculis (translation of the Greek ἐξ ἁπαλῶν ὀνύχων, only in the epistolary style of Cic., ad Div., 1, 6, extr).

IMPROPR, in the sense of imperfect state, e.g., of arts, etc., prima initia, plur.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for childhood?: The usual Latin words for “childhood” are īnfāns, pueritia, aetās. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.