Is "adulting" a real word?

It is a word. With English, once enough people start using a word, it becomes part of the language. English changes to match how people speak rather than creating rigid rules. For me, if it is allowed in the game Scrabble, then it is a word.

Of course it’s a real word, it’s just informal and has become popular in the last decade or so. A lot of other words we’d consider completely standard nowadays might have been unheard of 50 years ago, since that’s how language works.

It's the horrible act of verbing. Turning a noun into a verb by putting an 'ing' on the end. Best example I know: verbing.

Any word that people use is a real word.

It’s a real slang word that’s gained currency in the last decade, with the meaning of “performing routine tasks such as are necessary and suitable for an adult to do.” The oldest OED quote in this sense is from 2018. Before then, it’s attested much less often, and with a different meaning of “transforming someone or something into adulthood.”

English is a descriptivist language, which basically means that English is defined as the language English speakers agree on. This may sound like circular logic, but it means what the language is adapts to how it’s used. There’s no authority that decided if something is or isn’t a “real” word. That being said, adulting is a word that has come into common use only in recent years, as you observed. I’m pretty sure it was mostly spears via the internet, and is mostly used by young people (empirically, like 15-30 y.o.s but have no data). It “sounds weird” probably because of how it came about on the internet, but that doesn’t make it any less valid. I have personally used this word in every-day speech and know many others who have too

It's in the Oxford English Dictionary as "The action or process of becoming, being, or behaving as an adult; (now) esp. the carrying out of the mundane or everyday tasks that are a necessary part of adult life". Their first cited use is from a 1921 book; "The junior high school is one of the most dangerous devices ever invented for the adulting of childhood and youth." - J. H. Doyle, Call of Education. Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Adulting, n. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved May 13, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1063243024

You just used it and I knew what you meant so yes, it's a word. If you're asking how much its used I'll occasionally hear it. It's an ironic way to refer to doing essential adult tasks that the speaker might want to consider themselves too young for, popular amoung the younger millenials <30

You can pretty much turn any noun into a verb by adding "ing" at the end with the meaning something like "doing whatever \[nouns\] are supposed to do".

It's a humorous abbreviation for fulfilling one's adult responsibilities. I think it's a bit overused, but it's still a funny word.

These language subs never fail to be arrogant AF when you ask any question. “uh tHatS hOW lAngUaGe wOrKs”

People make up words all the time and turn nouns into verbs like this. Even if it’s not in a dictionary these words are very commonly used but you might have to infer the meaning in the moment when you hear them

> I never heard this word growing **up but** now it's everywhere. \*up, but > It seems **to have sneaked** into the **dictionary so** I'm assuming **its** in use. \*to have snuck \*dictionary, so \*it's (contraction of "it is" or "it has") its = possessive pronoun All contractions have apostrophes. Possessive pronouns never do. > **Personally I** never use it. \*Personally, I

It's a modern tongue-in-cheek neologism for the difficulties of being adult, especially the feeling that one has not been properly prepared (by parents, teachers, society) for adulthood. It sounds clunky and it's meant to, since *adult* is not a verb. (Unlike, for example, *parenting*, where *parent* is a verb on its own.) Merriam-Webster dates it to 2013.

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

If it isn’t a real word, then what is it?

It’s slang. Totally fine, if overused, in casual conversation, but I’d avoid it in a more formal setting.

English evolves, and it has evolved faster and faster since the Internet has brought us all together. Slang becomes language. I would guess that adulting is used as often in 10 years as pwned is used today. That said, it is absolutely used in both spoken language and online, today. And that makes it a word.

It's "made up" in the sense that it's informal and relatively new, but all words are made up of you want to get into how language works. "Adulting" is a form of slang that was popular with teenagers and young adults in the mid 2000s to 2010s. It was very common to turn nouns into verbs in order to shorten a phrase at this time. "Adulting" means "behaving like an adult" or "having adult responsibilities." But "verbing nouns" has also been happening in English for centuries. Most words that have been verbed just sound normal to us now. Saying "Google" instead of "search" or "make a Google search" is also an example of this

It's common among people I know. You may find the book "Word by Word" interesting. It's a partly autobiographical book about what it's like being a dictionary-writer. Relevant to this conversation:  The people writing the dictionary usually don't consider words they haven't added yet "not real words". They're just trying to document how people speak, and they're very behind. The idea that the dictionary is "real English" and "true" came from how dictionaries marketed themselves over the last 150 years.

I've always preferred "grown folks' business"

Its modern slang.

It’s a made up word in a joking sort of way.

The OED says it dates back to 1909. That's recent by linguistic standards, but not what you'd call "new". I don't use it either -- It looks to be an Americanism, as all 4 usages it cites are from American publications.

It is now.

i believe it's used in the same way as parenting but about your lifestyle and ways of getting through life's struggles as an adult and not parenthood

i believe it's used in the same way as parenting but about your lifestyle and ways of getting through life's struggles as an adult and not parenthood

Yep I think millennials invented it when they sensed the uncomfortable novelty of getting their “firsts.” Jobs, apartments, furniture, etc.