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Generation

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 mothers of my generation; what's she, if i be a dog? (Shak)

6. (Science: 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. (Science: 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.

(Science: 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.