1 [C+sing./pl.v.] all the people who were born at about the same time:
the younger / older generation * My generation have grown up without the experience of a world war. * I often wonder what future generations will make of our efforts.
2 [C] the average time in which children grow up, become adults and have children of their own, (usually considered to be about 30 years):
a generation ago * My family have lived in this house for generations.
3 [C,U] a single stage in the history of a family:
stories passed down from generation to generation * a first- / second- generation American (= a person whose family has lived in America for one / two generations)
4 [C,usually sing.] a group of people of similar age involved in a particular activity:
She has inspired a whole generation of fashion school graduates.
5 [C,usually sing.] a stage in the development of a product, usually a technical one:
fifth-generation computing * a new generation of vehicle
6 [U] the production of sth, especially electricity, heat, etc:
the generation of electricity * methods of income generation
7 [U] (biology) the development of animals, plants, etc:
spontaneous generation
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
Where does this definition of generation come from?
This entry for generation is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is generation a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, generation is tagged as noun.
Does generation appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — generation appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.