generation: Meaning and Definition of

gen•er•a•tion

Pronunciation: ( jen"u-rā'shun), [key]
— n.
  1. the entire body of individuals born and living at about the same time: the postwar generation.
  2. the term of years, roughly 30 among human beings, accepted as the average period between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring.
  3. a group of individuals, most of whom are the same approximate age, having similar ideas, problems, attitudes, etc. Cf. Beat Generation, Lost Generation.
  4. a group of individuals belonging to a specific category at the same time: Chaplin belonged to the generation of silent-screen stars.
  5. a single step in natural descent, as of human beings, animals, or plants.
  6. a form, type, class, etc., of objects existing at the same time and having many similarities or developed from a common model or ancestor: a new generation of computers.
  7. the offspring of a certain parent or couple, considered as a step in natural descent.
  8. the act or process of generating; procreation.
  9. the state of being generated.
  10. production by natural or artificial processes; evolution, as of heat or sound.
  11. the gametophyte generation.
    1. one complete life cycle.
    2. one of the alternate phases that complete a life cycle having more than one phase:the gametophyte generation.
  12. the production of a geometrical figure by the motion of another figure.
  13. one of the successive sets of nuclei produced in a chain reaction.
  14. (in duplicating processes, as photocopying, film, etc.) the distance in duplicating steps that a copy is from the original work.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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