generation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the production of heat or electricity

   dams were built for the generation of electricity

2. 2
   noun

   the normal time between successive generations

   they had to wait a generation for that prejudice to fade

3. 3
   noun

   a stage of technological development or innovation

   the third generation of computers

4. 4
   noun

   The act of creating something or bringing something into being; production, creation.

   The generation of peat, when not completely under water, is confined to moist situations […]

5. 5
   noun

   The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation.

   So all things else, that nourish vitall blood, / Soone as with fury thou doest them inspire, / In generation seek to quench their inward fire.

6. 6
   noun

   Race, family; breed.

   Thy Mothers of my generation: what's she, if I be a Dogge?

7. 7
   noun

   A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or degree in genealogy, the members of a family from the same parents, considered as a single unit.

   This is the book of the generations of Adam - Genesis 5:1

8. 8
   noun

   The average amount of time needed for children to grow up and have children of their own, generally considered to be a period of around thirty years, used as a measure of time.

   Before the independence of India the books of Dr P. K. Yadav presented a fundamental challenge to the accepted ideas of race relations that, two generations later, will be true of the writings of the radical writers of the 1970s.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English generacioun, from Anglo-Norman generacioun, Middle French generacion, and their source, Latin generātiō, from generāre (“to beget, generate”). By surface analysis, generate + -ion.