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generation

generation

172 3.2
The process of making something like electricity or new cells
  • noun
  • /ˌdʒɛnəˈreɪʃən/
translation icon : generación
  • The trend toward specialized reading has spawned a generation of consumer and special-interest magazines.
  • power generation
  • electricity generation
  • energy generation

Last week Open AI launched image generation on day one.

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Examples

  • Until 1950, the large companies enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the generation of electricity.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Liberty is an idea, handed down from generation to generation, people to people.

  • One of the real big ones is idea generation, getting your ideas.

  • Last week Open AI launched image generation on day one.

  • Our process here ensures that each new generation we breed is more powerful than the last.

  • Most coal losses occurred in the generation market due to competition with natural gas.

    Academic text (1999)
  • There's a whole generation of knowledge that we lost.

  • Determined to help these veterans, a new generation of scientists has revolutionized the field of prosthetics.

    Academic text (2011)
  • The invention of the internet marked a new generation of communication technology.

  • Scientists are studying the impact of climate change on the global generation of new plant species.

Synonyms

creation
vsgeneration
349 1.8

The act of making something new

is a general process of producing things including natural or technical systems
making
vsgeneration
320 1.3

The act of producing something

is broader, covering both natural production and human-made processes
birth
vsgeneration
313 1.0

The start of something new, for example a life or an era

is the broader producing process including gradual and technical production
production
vsgeneration
304 2.7

Making goods or services on a large scale

is the broader act of producing, not limited to goods manufacturing
breeding
vsgeneration
  • Specialized
90 3.1

The process of producing new animals or plants by choosing which ones mate

is broader, applying to producing nonliving or noncontrolled forms as well
reproduction
vsgeneration
39 3.9

A way living things make babies or young

is more general, applying to nonliving production too
procreation
vsgeneration
26 5.6

The process when people or animals have babies

is the broader act of producing that also includes nonbiological creation
genesis
vsgeneration
24 7.6

The start of something and how it began

is the general producing process rather than only its origin
propagation
vsgeneration
  • Specialized
4 6.6

Plants or animals producing young so their number grows

is the wider process of making things, not only biological increase
multiplication
vsgeneration
1 8.1

The process of animals or plants making young

is more general, covering nonliving production and creation
biogenesis
vsgeneration
  • Specialized
1 9.6

The idea that living things come from other living things

covers any producing process including nonliving sources
embryogenesis
vsgeneration
  • Specialized
1 9.0

A process when an embryo forms and grows from a fertilized egg or single cell

is the wider producing process, not limited to early organism development
progeniture
vsgeneration
  • Archaic
9.9

To produce children or young animals

is the general process of producing many types of things beyond offspring
germination
vsgeneration
5.4

The first stage when an idea or movement begins to develop

is the general act of producing at any stage, not just the first

Antonyms

849 3.0

Severe damage that makes something no longer exist or cannot be fixed

Compounds

People in the United States born between 1946 and 1964 when birth rates rose after World War II

5 3.6

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

A difference in opinions and values between young people and their parents

2 8.0

A group of American writers and artists from the 1950s who reject social rules and choose free creative lives

wind generation
  • Specialized
1 3.8

Electricity made from wind using turbines

1 9.8

The idea that living things can appear from nonliving matter without parents is now known to be wrong

How Productive

manufacture
33 3.7
production
304 2.7
generation
172 3.2
Creation
258 7.1

Surface Forms

generation singular
generations plural

Morphology

generation = generate (transparent) = generate + ion

A straightforward nominalization: 'generate' + '-ion' yields 'the act or process of producing', which learners can infer from the verb.

Etymology

Generation comes from the Latin word generare, which means 'to produce' or 'to give birth'. It is the same root as the common word generate, so the generation of electricity, cells, or ideas is simply the act of producing them.