- the entire body of individuals born and living at about the same time: the postwar generation.
- the average span of years between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring, reckoned in accordance with various disciplines, as in human population studies, which typically cite a generational range as 20–35 years, and in the classification of Generations X, Y, and Z, which loosely frame periods of 15–20 years: Her photo layout shows the hairstyle trends among young men over the past four generations.
- a group of individuals, most of whom are the same approximate age, having similar ideas, problems, attitudes, etc.
- a group of individuals belonging to a specific category at the same time: Chaplin belonged to the generation of silent-screen stars.
- a single step in natural descent, as of human beings, animals, or plants.
- a form, type, class, etc., of objects existing at the same time and having many similarities or developed from a common model or ancestor (often used in combination): a new generation of anticancer drugs;a third-generation phone.
- the offspring of a certain parent or couple, considered as a step in natural descent.
- the act or process of generating or bringing into being; production, manufacture, or procreation.
- the state of being generated.
- production by natural or artificial processes; evolution, as of heat or sound.
- Biology.
- one complete life cycle.
- one of the alternate phases that complete a life cycle having more than one phase: the gametophyte generation.
- the production of a geometrical figure by the motion of another figure.
- one of the successive sets of nuclei produced in a chain reaction.
- (in duplicating processes, as photocopying, film, etc.) the distance in duplicating steps that a copy is from the original work.
- the act or process of bringing into being; production or reproduction, esp of offspring
- a successive stage in natural descent of organisms: the time between when an organism comes into being and when it reproduces
- the individuals produced at each stage
- the normal or average time between two such generations of a species: about 35 years for humans
- a phase or form in the life cycle of a plant or animal characterized by a particular type of reproduction
- all the people of approximately the same age, esp when considered as sharing certain attitudes, etc
- production of electricity, heat, etc
- a set of nuclei formed directly from a preceding set in a chain reaction
- (modifier, in combination)
- belonging to a generation specified as having been born in or as having parents, grandparents, etc, born in a given country
- belonging to a specified stage of development in manufacture, usually implying improvement
