generation

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman generacioun, Middle French generacion, and their source, Latin generātiō, from generāre, present active infinitive of generō (“to beget, generate”). Compare generate.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌd͡ʒɛnəˈɹeɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: gen‧er‧a‧tion

Noun

generation (countable and uncountable, plural generations)

1. The fact of creating something, or bringing something into being; production, creation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1832, Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, II:

     The generation of peat, when not completely under water, is confined to moist situations.

2. The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:

     So all things else, that nourish vitall blood, / Soone as with fury thou doest them inspire, / In generation seek to quench their inward fire.

   • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum:

     Generation by Copulation (certainly) extendeth not to Plants.

   • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. Or, The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. Chapter V.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, or, A Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in Norfolk. Together with The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. With Sundry Observations, London: Printed for Hen[ry] Brome at the Signe of the Gun in Ivy-lane, OCLC 48702491; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, OCLC 78413388, page 192:

     According to that Cabaliſticall Dogma: If Abram had not had this Letter [i.e., ה‎ (he)] added unto his Name he had remained fruitleſſe, and without the power of generation: […] So that being ſterill before, he received the power of generation from that meaſure and manſion in the Archetype; and was made conformable unto Binah.

3. (now US regional) Race, family; breed. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, First Folio 1623, I.3:

     Thy Mothers of my generation: what's she, if I be a Dogge?

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 5:1

   Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations - Baruch 6:3

   All 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.]
   • 2008, Edgar Thorpe, Objective English:

     Before the independence of India the books of Dr P. K. Yadav presented a fundamental challenge to the accepted ideas of race relations that, two generations later, will be true of the writings of the radical writers of the 1970s.

7. A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology. [from 20th c.]
   • 2009, Paul Deital, Harvey Deital and Abbey Deital, iPhone for Programmers:

     The first-generation iPhone was released in June 2007 and was an instant blockbuster success.

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

9. A specific age range in which each person in that range 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.

10. 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.

Further reading

• generation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• generation in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• "generation" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 140.

Anagrams

• renegation

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin generatio.

Noun

generation f (plural generations)

1. generation (procreation; begetting)
2. generation (rank or degree in genealogy)

Noun

generation c

1. a generation