sweet sixteen

• sweet 16

sweet sixteen (plural sweet sixteens)

1. (US, informal) A girl's sixteenth birthday, or sixteenth-birthday party and a related coming of age party.
   • 1978 January 4, Lynn Ames, “Sweet Sixteen: A Rite That Persists”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     But one tradition associated with the age hangs on: the Sweet Sixteen celebration. Symptomatic of at least a partial swing away from counterculture sentiments, the Sweet Sixteen party—relatively dormant during the anti‐Establishment turmoil of the late 60's and early 70's—is becoming popular again as a way of marking the 16th birthday.

2. (bingo) sixteen

• sweet thirteen
• sweet fifteen
• sweet seventeen

• cotillion
• quinceaños
• quinceañera
• batmitzvah