class

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A group of students who are taught together.

   Our English class has twenty students.

2. 2
   noun

   A period of teaching on a particular subject.

   I have a history class at nine o'clock.

3. 3
   noun

   A group of people, things, or animals that share similar qualities.

   There are two classes of detergent on the shelf.

4. 4
   noun

   A group of people in society at the same social or economic level.

   He grew up in a working-class family.

5. 5
   verb

   To put someone or something into a particular group or category.

   How would you class these pottery pieces?

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Class comes from Latin classis, a word with senses including a division of citizens by wealth, a division or category, an army, and a fleet, and with an underlying idea of a summons or call. English developed the social and categorical senses in the 16th century, while a class of students is recorded from the middle of that century. Classic and classical derive through French from Latin classicus, based on classis and meaning “of the highest class” or “excellent.”

From Middle French classe, from Latin classis (“a class or division of the people, assembly of people, the whole body of citizens called to arms, the army, the fleet, later a class or division in general”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, shout”). Doublet of clas and classis.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary