generation

Noun

1. 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 […] - 1832, Charles Lyell, chapter XIII, in Principles of Geology […] , volume II, London: John Murray, page 210:
2. 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. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […],...
   • Generation by Copulation (certainly) extendeth not to Plants. - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries....
   • According to that Cabaliſticall Dogma: If Abram had not had this Letter [i.e., ה (he)] added unto his Name he had remained fruitleſſe, and without the power of generation: […] So that being ſterill before, he received...
3. Race, family; breed.
   • Thy Mothers of my generation: what's she, if I be a Dogge? - c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
4. 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
   • Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations - Baruch 6:3
   • All generations and ages of the Christian church - Richard Hooker
5. Descendants, progeny; offspring.
6. 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...
7. A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology.
   • The first-generation iPhone was released in June 2007 and was an instant blockbuster success. - 2009, Paul Deital, Harvey Deital, Abbey Deital, iPhone for Programmers:
8. 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, by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc.
   • the generation of a line or curve
9. A group of people born in a specific range of years and whose members can relate culturally to one another.
   • Generation X grew up in the eighties, whereas the generation known as the millennials grew up in the nineties.
10. A version of a form of pop culture which differs from later or earlier versions.
    • People sometimes dispute which generation of Star Trek is best, including the original and The Next Generation.
11. A copy of a recording made from an earlier copy.
    • With one-inch C format or half-inch Betacam used in the component mode, quality loss through additional generations is not such a problem. In this situation, it would be usual to make the necessary alterations while...
    • Each generation away from the original or master produces increased degradation in the image quality. - 2002, Keith Jack, Vladimir Tsatsoulin, Dictionary of Video and Television Technology, page 131:
12. A single iteration of a cellular automaton rule on a pattern.
    • It runs for 17331 generations before stabilizing as 136 blinkers, 109 blocks, 65 beehives, 18 loaves, 18 boats, 7 ships, 4 tubs, 3 ponds, 2 toads, and 40 gliders. - 1989 November 20, Dean Hickerson, “Life: glider gun...
    • The glider is fast--it moves 2 cells every 3 generations. There is also a spinning thing (sixty degrees every 21 generations) - 1999 June 15, hexatron, “A new hexagonal CA with a new glider”, in...
    • In B37/S23, it goes symmetrical after 10 ticks, and produces a familiar pair of B-heptominoes after 23 ticks (the next generation after this can be found in the rotor of a standard B3/S23 p46 oscillator): - 2008 June...