# generation

Pronunciation: say "jen-uh-RAY-shuhn" /ˌd͡ʒɛnəˈɹeɪʃən/

## Noun

1. A group of people born within the same range of years who share cultural touchstones and can relate to one another.
   - Simple: All the people born around the same time, who often share ideas, music, and ways of life.
   - _Her generation came of age during the rise of social media._
   - _Marketing campaigns often target one generation while alienating another._
2. The act or process of creating something or bringing it into being; production or creation.
   - Simple: The act of making something or causing something to start to exist.
   - _Wind turbines along the coast handle most of the region's power generation._
   - _The report focused on the generation of new ideas within small teams._
3. A single stage in the line of descent within a family; the members of a family at the same level, such as siblings, considered as a unit.
   - Simple: One step in a family line, like parents, then their children, then the grandchildren.
   - _The farm has passed from one generation to the next for over a century._
   - _Genealogists trace each generation back through birth and marriage records._
4. One stage in the development of a technology, product, or entertainment series, set apart from the versions before and after it.
   - Simple: One stage or version of a machine, product, or game or film series, different from earlier and later ones.
   - _Each generation of processors packs more computing power into a smaller chip._
   - _The airline is replacing its fleet with a new generation of fuel-efficient jets._
5. The average span of time, usually reckoned at about 25 to 30 years, for children to grow up and have children of their own, used as a unit of time.
   - Simple: A length of time, about 25 to 30 years, from when people are born until they have their own children.
   - _A generation has passed since the mill closed its doors._
   - _The feud between the two families lasted for three generations._
6. A person's descendants, progeny, or offspring; those who come after someone in the family line. *(Nigeria)*
   - Simple: The children and later family members who come after a person.
7. The act or process of producing a living creature or organism; procreation.
   - Simple: The act of producing a baby, animal, or other living thing.
   - _The generation of healthy offspring depends heavily on the parents' nutrition._
   - _The lecture compared the generation of mammals, which bear live young, with that of birds, which lay eggs._
8. A copy of an audio or video recording, counted by how many copying steps separate it from the original.
   - Simple: A copy of a video or sound recording that was made from another copy, not from the original.
   - _The bootleg circulating online is at least a fourth generation, with noticeable hiss._
   - _Archivists prefer the master tape because every generation loses picture quality._
9. A race or family line; the breed or stock from which a person or animal comes. *(dialectal, US)*
   - Simple: The family line or breed that a person or animal comes from.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The formation of a geometric figure (a line, surface, or solid) through the motion of a point, line, or surface according to a mathematical law.
- (noun) A single application of a cellular automaton's rule to a pattern, producing the next state of every cell simultaneously.

## Origin

Inherited from Middle English generacioun, borrowed from Old French generacion and from Latin generātiō, which comes from generāre ("to beget, generate"). It can be analyzed as generate plus the suffix -ion.

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