Generation

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Generation \Gen`er*a"tion\, n. [OE. generacioun, F.
     g['e]n['e]ration, fr.L. generatio.]
     1. The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of
        animals.
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     2. Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or
        vital; production; formation; as, the generation of
        sounds, of gases, of curves, etc.
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     3. That which is generated or brought forth; progeny;
        offspiring.
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     4. 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.
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              This is the book of the generations of Adam. --Gen.
                                                    v. 1.
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              Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and
              for a long season, namely, seven generations.
                                                    --Baruch vi.
                                                    3.
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              All generations and ages of the Christian church.
                                                    --Hooker.
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     5. Race; kind; family; breed; stock.
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              Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a
              dog?                                  --Shak.
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     6. (Geom.) 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.
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     7. (Biol.) The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which
        attend reproduction.
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     Note: 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.
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     {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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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  generation
       n 1: all the people living at the same time or of approximately
            the same age [syn: {coevals}, {contemporaries}]
       2: group of genetically related organisms constituting a single
          step in the line of descent
       3: the normal time between successive generations; "they had to
          wait a generation for that prejudice to fade"
       4: a stage of technological development or innovation; "the
          third generation of computers"
       5: a coming into being [syn: {genesis}]
       6: the production of heat or electricity; "dams were built for
          the generation of electricity"
       7: the act of producing offspring or multiplying by such
          production [syn: {multiplication}, {propagation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  83 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  generation
       
          An attempt to classify the degree of sophistication of
          programming languages.
       
          See {First generation language} -- {Fifth generation
          language}.
       
          (1995-06-15)
       
       

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Generation
     Gen. 2:4, "These are the generations," means the "history." 5:1,
     "The book of the generations," means a family register, or
     history of Adam. 37:2, "The generations of Jacob" = the history
     of Jacob and his descendants. 7:1, "In this generation" = in
     this age. Ps. 49:19, "The generation of his fathers" = the
     dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Ps. 73:15, "The
     generation of thy children" = the contemporary race. Isa. 53:8,
     "Who shall declare his generation?" = His manner of life who
     shall declare? or rather = His race, posterity, shall be so
     numerous that no one shall be able to declare it.
     
       In Matt. 1:17, the word means a succession or series of
     persons from the same stock. Matt. 3:7, "Generation of vipers" =
     brood of vipers. 24:34, "This generation" = the persons then
     living contemporary with Christ. 1 Pet. 2:9, "A chosen
     generation" = a chosen people.
     
       The Hebrews seem to have reckoned time by the generation. In
     the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus:
     Gen. 15:16, "In the fourth generation" = in four hundred years
     (comp. verse 13 and Ex. 12:40). In Deut. 1:35 and 2:14 a
     generation is a period of thirty-eight years.