generation definition

An attempt to classify the degree of sophistication of programming languages.

See First generation language -- Fifth generation language.

1. The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals.

2. Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, etc.

3. That which is generated or brought forth; progeny; offspiring.

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. "This is the book of the generations of Adam." (Gen. V. 1) "Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations." (Baruch vi. 3) "All generations and ages of the Christian church." (Hooker)

5. Race; kind; family; breed; stock. "Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a dog?" (Shak)

6. <geometry> 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.

7. <biology> The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which attend reproduction.

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.

<biology> Alternate generation, 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.

Origin: OE. Generacioun, F. Generation, fr.L. Generatio.