# generation

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˌd͡ʒɛnəˈɹeɪʃən/ · frequency rank #1,601

## Definitions
1. The act of creating something or bringing something into being; production, creation.
2. The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation.
3. Race, family; breed.
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.
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.
7. A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology.
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.
9. A group of people born in a specific range of years and whose members can relate culturally to one another.
10. A version of a form of pop culture which differs from later or earlier versions.
11. A copy of a recording made from an earlier copy.
12. A single iteration of a cellular automaton rule on a pattern.

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English generacioun, from Anglo-Norman generacioun, Middle French generacion, and their source, Latin generātiō, from generāre (“to beget, generate”). By surface analysis, generate + -ion.

## Easily confused with
- **generator** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generation-vs-generator)
- **generative** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generation-vs-generative)
- **generations** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generation-vs-generations)
- **generational** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generation-vs-generational)

## Common misspellings (15)
`egneration`, `geenration`, `geneartion`, `generaiton`, `generasion`, `generatino`, `generationn`, `generatoin`, `generattion`, `generration`, `genertaion`, `genneration`, `genreation`, `ggeneration`, `gneeration`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/generation