maturus

Maturus is a classical Latin adjective meaning ripe, mature, or fully developed. It describes something that has reached an appropriate stage of growth or readiness, including people, animals, objects, or conditions. Beyond physical ripeness, maturus can also convey the idea of maturity of judgment or capability. In English, the Latin root furnishes terms such as mature, maturity, and maturation, and it appears in various scientific and technical vocabularies.

In grammar, maturus is a second-declension adjective with the standard endings: masculine maturus, feminine matura, neuter maturum. Its declined forms include maturī (genitive), maturae, maturō, maturā, and comparable neuter endings. The comparative form is maturior and the superlative maturissimus. The neuter forms mirror the masculine in most cases. As with other Latin adjectives, maturus agrees in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies.

Semantic range extends from literal ripeness to figurative fullness, such as a mature age, a mature plan, or mature behavior. In Latin literature, it frequently modifies nouns related to age, growth, or capability and can appear in predicative constructions to characterize subjects as mature or fully developed.

Beyond Latin usage, maturus informs related English terms and contributes to scientific and philosophical discussions about development, aging, and readiness. See also mature, maturity, maturation, and etymology.