ikääntyvä

Ikääntyvä is a Finnish term that functions as both a present participle and an adjective. It describes something or someone that is in the process of getting older. The word is formed from the verb ikääntyä, meaning to age or grow older, and is used to characterize people, populations, or organisms that are aging.

In grammar, ikääntyvä behaves as an ordinary adjective and agrees with its noun in number and case. It can appear in phrases such as ikääntyvä väestö ("an aging population") or ikääntyvä henkilö ("an aging person"). The corresponding noun form is ikääntyminen, referring to the aging process.

In usage across fields, ikääntyvä is common in demography, public policy, health care, and biology when discussing aging trends or aging-related needs. In Finnish media and academic writing, ikääntyvä väestö is widely used to describe the demographic shift toward an older population. The term can also describe aging animals or other organisms, for example ikääntyvä eläin.

Related terms include ikääntyminen (the aging process) and vanheneminen (getting older). The adjective vanheneva is often used as a synonym, for instance vanheneva väestö. Nuances exist: ikääntyvä emphasizes the ongoing process, while vanheneminen or vanheneva may carry slightly different stylistic connotations.