The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals. [1913 Webster]
Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, etc. [1913 Webster]
That which is generated or brought forth; progeny; offspiring. [1913 Webster]
A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or remove in genealogy. Hence: The body of those who are of the same genealogical rank or remove from an ancestor; the mass of beings living at one period; also, the average lifetime of man, or the ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child, usually assumed to be one third of a century; an age. [1913 Webster]
"This is the book of the generations of Adam." [1913 Webster]

"Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations." [1913 Webster]

"All generations and ages of the Christian church." [1913 Webster]
Race; kind; family; breed; stock. [1913 Webster]
"Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a dog?" [1913 Webster]
The formation or production of any geometrical magnitude, as a line, a surface, a solid, by the motion, in accordance with a mathematical law, of a point or a magnitude; as, the generation of a line or curve by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc. [1913 Webster]
The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which attend reproduction. [1913 Webster]
" There are four modes of generation in the animal kingdom: scissiparity or by fissiparous generation, gemmiparity or by budding, germiparity or by germs, and oviparity or by ova." [1913 Webster]

Alternate generation (Biol.), alternation of sexual with asexual generation, in which the products of one process differ from those of the other, -- a form of reproduction common both to animal and vegetable organisms. In the simplest form, the organism arising from sexual generation produces offspiring unlike itself, agamogenetically. These, however, in time acquire reproductive organs, and from their impregnated germs the original parent form is reproduced. In more complicated cases, the first series of organisms produced agamogenetically may give rise to others by a like process, and these in turn to still other generations. Ultimately, however, a generation is formed which develops sexual organs, and the original form is reproduced. -- Spontaneous generation (Biol.), the fancied production of living organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters; abiogenesis.

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

Generation, n.
1 all the people born at a particular time, regarded collectively (my generation; the rising generation).
2 a single step in descent or pedigree (have known them for three generations).
3 a stage in (esp. technological) development (fourth-generation computers).
4 the average time in which children are ready to take the place of their parents (usu. reckoned at about 30 years).
5 production by natural or artificial process, esp. the production of electricity or heat.
6 a procreation; the propagation of species. b the act of begetting or being begotten.

Idiom

generation gap differences of outlook or opinion between those of different generations.

Derivative

generational adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L generatio -onis (as GENERATE)

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THESAURUS

Generation

Platonic year, abiogenesis, aeon, age, age group, annus magnus, archigenesis, authorship, begetting, beginning, biogenesis, birth, blastogenesis, breeding, coinage, conception, concoction, contrivance, contriving, creation, creative effort, crop, crossbreeding, cycle, cycle of indiction, date, day, days, development, devising, digenesis, dissogeny, endogamy, engenderment, epigenesis, epoch, era, establishment, eumerogenesis, fabrication, fathering, formation, formulation, genesis, great year, hatching, heterogenesis, histogenesis, homogenesis, improvisation, inbreeding, inception, indiction, initiation, institution, invention, isogenesis, life, lifetime, linebreeding, making do, merogenesis, metagenesis, mintage, monogenesis, multiplication, origination, orthogenesis, outbreeding, pangenesis, parthenogenesis, period, period of existence, procreation, production, proliferation, propagation, reproduction, spontaneous generation, start, time, times, xenogamy

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ROGET THESAURUS

Generation

Consanguinity

N consanguinity, relationship, kindred, blood, parentage, filiation, affiliation, lineage, agnation, connection, alliance, family connection, family tie, ties of blood, nepotism, kinsman, kinfolk, kith and kin, relation, relative, connection, sibling, sib, next of kin, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, cousin, cousin- german, first cousin, second cousin, cousin once removed, cousin twice removed, ear relation, distant relation, brother, sister, one's own flesh and blood, family, fraternity, brotherhood, sisterhood, cousinhood, race, stock, generation, sept, stirps, side, strain, breed, clan, tribe, nation, related, akin, consanguineous, of the blood, family, allied, collateral, cognate, agnate, connate, kindred, affiliated, fraternal, intimately related, nearly related, closely related, remotely related, distantly related, allied, german.

Period

N period, age, era, second, minute, hour, day, week, month, quarter, year, decade, decenniumm lustrum, quinquennium, lifetime, generation, epoch, ghurry, lunation, moon, century, millennium, annus magnus, horary, hourly, annual.

Production

N production, creation, construction, formation, fabrication, manufacture, building, architecture, erection, edification, coinage, diaster, organization, nisus formativus, putting together, establishment, workmanship, performance, achievement, flowering, fructification, inflorescence, bringing forth, parturition, birth, birth-throe, childbirth, delivery, confinement, accouchement, travail, labor, midwifery, obstetrics, geniture, gestation, assimilation, evolution, development, growth, entelechy, fertilization, gemination, germination, heterogamy, genesis, generation, epigenesis, procreation, progeneration, propagation, fecundation, impregnation, albumen, spontaneous generation, archegenesis, archebiosis, biogenesis, abiogenesis, digenesis, dysmerogenesis, eumerogenesis, heterogenesis, oogenesis, merogenesis, metogenesis, monogenesis, parthenogenesis, homogenesis, xenogenesis, authorship, publication, works, opus, oeuvre, biogeny, dissogeny, xenogeny, tocogony, vacuolization, edifice, building, structure, fabric, erection, pile, tower, flower, fruit, produced, producing, productive of, prolific, creative, formative, genetic, genial, genital, pregnant, enceinte, big with, fraught with, in the family way, teeming, parturient, in the straw, brought to bed of, puerperal, puerperous, digenetic, heterogenetic, oogenetic, xenogenetic, ectogenous, gamic, haematobious, sporogenous, sporophorous, architectonic, ex nihilo nihil, fiat lux, materiam superabat opus, nemo dat quod non habet.

Reproduction

N reproduction, renovation, restoration, renewal, new edition, reprint, revival, regeneration, palingenesis, revivification, apotheosis, resuscitation, reanimation, resurrection, reappearance, regrowth, Phoenix, generation, multiplication, reproduced, renascent, reappearing, reproductive, suigenetic.

Mankind

N man, mankind, human race, human species, human kind, human nature, humanity, mortality, flesh, generation, anthropology, anthropogeny, anthropography, anthroposophy, ethnology, ethnography, humanitarian, human being, person, personage, individual, creature, fellow creature, mortal, body, somebody, one, such a one, some one, soul, living soul, earthling, party, head, hand, dramatis personae, quidam, people, persons, folk, public, society, world, community, community at large, general public, nation, nationality, state, realm, commonweal, commonwealth, republic, body politic, million, population, tribe, clan (paternity), family (consanguinity), cosmopolite, lords of the creation, ourselves, human, mortal, personal, individual, national, civic, public, social, cosmopolitan, anthropoid, am I not a man and a brother?.

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