adj. 1
Fully developed; grown up in terms of physical appearance, behaviour or thinking; ripe.
She is quite mature for her age.
adj. 2
Brought to a state of complete readiness.
v. 1
To proceed toward maturity: full development or completion (either of concrete or of abstract things, e.g. plans, judgments, qualities).
v. 2
To attain maturity, to become mature or ripe.

Related words

Word family: maturation maturement matureness maturity
Phrases: mature student

Forms

Past participle: matured
e.g. matured → grown, maturated, progressed, ripened…

Choose the right word

or Mature?

Mature brings to view the progressiveness of the process; ripe indicates the result. We speak of a thing as mature when thinking of the successive stayes through which it has passed; as ripe, when our attention is directed merely to its state.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Example sentences

adult An adult tooth came in right next to a baby tooth.
grown My grandfather has retired because he's grown old.
ripe Ziri uses the fruit picker to gather ripe peaches.
fledged Is the possessive case in English a full-fledged genitive?

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
mature		steady
adult		steady
grown		steady
ripe		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: big¹, age¹, eld
4 letters: grow¹, aged¹, ripe¹
5 letters: ready², adult², grown¹, manly², olden², ripen²
6 letters: season², mellow², virile², nubile, upgrow
7 letters: perfect², develop³, fledged¹, concoct², senesce
8 letters: complete², finished², progress², prepared², grounded², mellowed², adultish, maturate, maturize
9 letters: developed³, elaborate³, suppurate
10 letters: consummate³
12 letters: marriageable

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ready² = 2 syllables).