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Glite Dictionary
Gen X

Gen X

4 3.9
People born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, often in the United States and Canada
  • noun
  • /dʒɛn ɛks/
  • US
translation icon : Generación X
  • One of the true icons of Gen X television, Al Bundy, serves as an instructive example here.

I will also say I'm Gen X and I don't know.

Examples

  • Cennamo and Gardner (2008) and Gibson et al. (2009) both found that Gen X and Millennials valued freedom in their schedules more than Baby Boomers.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Other researchers concluded that Gen X started the movement toward work-life balance, but Millennials accelerated it (Thompson & Gregory, 2012).

    Academic text (2016)

  • Now, are you concerned that Gen X and Gen Y are not involved?

    Blog text (23)

  • Did someone mention that Gen Y was three times the size of Gen X?

    Blog text (1)

  • I'm 30, which puts me right between Gen X and Gen Y.

    Blog text (33)

  • While those of us in Gen X accepted diversity, you Millennials celebrate it.

    Blog text (30)

  • The only problem is that Gen X may be unprepared and thrown in over their heads to lead Gen Y.

    Blog text (33)

  • In many ways, I believe that both Gen X and Gen Y have been brushed aside by Baby Boomers.

    Blog text (33)

  • Twenge also found that Gen X, and especially Millennials, were consistently higher in the recognition of individualistic traits than Baby Boomers.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Many Gen X individuals remember the rise of the internet as a pivotal moment in their youth.

Synonyms

buster
vsGen X
  • US
8 7.8

A person born after the baby boom generation

focuses on a specific birth year span rather than birth rate trends
Generation X
vsGen X
5 3.6

People born between the early 1960s and the late 1970s who come after the baby boomers

specifies births from the mid 1960s to early 1980s
baby buster
vsGen X
  • Archaic
7.3

A person born after the baby boom when birth rates fell

focuses on a mid 1960s to early 1980s birth span in North America

Surface Forms

Gen X singular
Gen Xs plural

Morphology

Gen + X

The form 'Gen X' is compositional in that it combines 'Gen' (an abbreviation for 'generation') with 'X' as a labeling letter, so learners who recognise the abbreviation and the use of letters to name cohorts can infer it refers to a named generation. However, the abbreviation 'Gen' and the specific historical cohort boundaries are not obvious from the parts alone to an average B1 learner, so the meaning is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Gen X gets its name from the idea of X as an unknown or blank and was made famous by Douglas Coupland's 1991 book 'Generation X'. So Gen X came to mean the people born from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, a group seen as more independent and different from the baby boomers.