# class

Pronunciation: US say "KLAS" /klæs/; UK say "KLAHS" /klɑːs/

## Noun

1. A group of students who meet regularly with a teacher for instruction.
   - Simple: A group of students who meet with a teacher at set times to learn.
   - _The class fell silent as the professor began the lecture._
   - _A noisy class can be hard for any teacher to manage._
2. A group or category of things that share common characteristics or attributes.
   - Simple: A set of things grouped together because they share the same features.
   - _Mathematicians group these numbers into a single class defined by a shared property._
   - _The new rule applies to a whole class of chemical compounds._
3. A series of lessons that cover one subject over an extended period.
   - Simple: A set of lessons about one subject, taught over a period of time.
   - _He enrolled in an evening photography class to learn the basics._
   - _The cooking class runs for eight weeks._
4. An individual lesson forming one session within a longer series.
   - Simple: One lesson out of a longer set of lessons.
   - _The first class of the term covered basic safety rules._
   - _She stayed after class to ask the instructor a question._
5. A division of society based on wealth, occupation, or social status, or the organization of society into such divisions.
   - Simple: A social group based on money, work, or status, or the way society is divided into these groups.
   - _Economists study how the working class has changed over recent decades._
   - _Tensions between social classes shaped much of the country's politics._
6. A group of students who began or finished their studies in the same year.
   - Simple: All the students who finish school in the same year.
   - _She was voted most likely to succeed by her graduating class._
   - _The class of 1995 donated a bench to the campus._
7. A category of seating on an airplane, train, or other form of mass transport, differing in price and comfort.
   - Simple: A level of seats on a plane, train, or bus, each with a different price and comfort.
   - _She upgraded to a higher class for the overnight flight._
   - _Tickets in business class sold out within hours._
8. Impressive stylishness, skill, or dignified behavior; the quality of being excellent of its kind, as in 'she handled defeat with class'.
   - Simple: A special quality of being very good, stylish, or graceful.
   - _The veteran striker brought a level of class no other player could match._
   - _Everything about the venue spoke of genuine class._
9. A template that defines a set of objects sharing the same behavior, though they usually differ in the data they hold.
   - Simple: A template in programming that describes a kind of object and the actions it can perform.
   - _The class encapsulates both the data and the methods that operate on it._
   - _She refactored the base class so that other parts of the program could reuse it._
10. A rank in the classification of living things, below phylum and above order; a group of organisms at that rank.
   - Simple: One of the big levels scientists use to sort living things, or a group of living things at that level.
   - _Mammals form a single class within the animal kingdom._
   - _Frogs, toads and salamanders all belong to the class Amphibia._
13. A grouping of data values that fall within a defined interval, used in building a frequency distribution.
   - Simple: A range of values grouped together so that data can be counted and compared.
   - _For the frequency table, she sorted the heights into classes five centimeters wide._
   - _Choosing a wider class can smooth out irregularities in the histogram._
14. A collection of sets defined by a shared property, especially one that is too large to be a set itself, known as a proper class.
   - Simple: In advanced math, a group of sets that all share a property, sometimes too large to count as a set.
   - _Because the collection of all sets is too big to be a set, mathematicians call it a class._
   - _In this theory, a proper class cannot be a member of any other class._

## Verb

11. To put someone or something into a particular category or group, or to be regarded as belonging to one, as in 'the drug is classed as a stimulant'.
   - Simple: To say which group someone or something belongs to.
   - _Officials class the documents according to their level of secrecy._
   - _Critics often class her work alongside the great modernists._

## Adjective

12. Excellent or impressively stylish. *(dialectal, Geordie, Ireland)*
   - Simple: Very good, impressive, or stylish.
   - _The restaurant put on a class meal for the celebration._
   - _She threw a really class party, with live jazz and candlelit tables._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A group of people liable for conscription in the same military draft, or specifically those actually drafted in a given call-up.
- (noun) A subdivision of a Methodist congregation, made up of members who meet under the guidance of a class leader.

## Origin

Latin classis first meant a division or class of the people, an assembly, or all the citizens summoned to arms, as well as the army and the fleet. Later it meant any class or division. It came into English through Middle French classe and goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *kelh₁- ("to call, shout").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/class (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).