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GENERATION

Etymology

From Middle English generacioun,

from Anglo-Norman generacioun, Middle French generacion, and their source, Latin generātiō,

from generāre, present active infinitive of generō (“to beget, generate”).

Compare generate.

Noun

generation (countable and uncountable, plural generations)

  1. The act of creating something or bringing something into being; production, creation. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
  2. The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
  3. (now US, dialectal) Race, family; breed. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
  4. A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or degree in genealogy, the members of a family from the same parents, considered as a single unit. [from 14th c.]This is the book of the generations of Adam - Genesis 5:1Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations - Baruch 6:3All generations and ages of the Christian church - Richard Hooker
  5. (obsolete) Descendants, progeny; offspring. [15th–19th c.]
  6. The average amount of time needed for children to grow up and have children of their own, generally considered to be a period of around thirty years, used as a measure of time. [from 17th c.] quotations ▼
  7. A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology. [from 20th c.] quotations ▼
  8. (geometry) The formation or production of any geometrical magnitude, as a line, a surface, a solid, by the motion, in accordance with a mathematical law, of a point or a magnitude, by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc.

the generation of a line or curve

  1. A group of people born in a specific range of years and whose members can relate culturally to one another.

Generation X grew up in the eighties, whereas the generation known as the millennials grew up in the nineties.

  1. A version of a form of pop culture which differs from later or earlier versions.

People sometimes dispute which generation of Star Trek is best, including the original and The Next Generation.

  1. (television) A copy of a recording made from an earlier copy and thus further degraded in quality. quotations ▼
  2. (cellular automata) A single iteration of a cellular automaton rule on a pattern. quotations ▼
Hyponyms

Hyponyms of generation (noun)

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Derived terms