1. The people born and living about the same time, considered as a group: the baby-boom generation.

2. The average interval of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring: a social change that took place over three generations.

3. All of the offspring that are at the same stage of descent from a common ancestor: Mother and daughters represent two generations.

4. Biology A form or stage in the life cycle of an organism: the asexual generation of a fern.

6. The formation of a line or geometric figure by the movement of a point or line.

7. The act or process of generating; origination, production, or procreation.

8. Physics Any of three groups of fundamental fermions, each containing two quarks and two leptons, together with their associated antiparticles, corresponding members of which differ in mass and lifetime. The first or electron generation consists of the down quark, up quark, electron, and electron neutrino lepton. The second or muon generation consists of the strange quark, charm quark, muon, and muon neutrino lepton. The third or tauon generation consists of the bottom quark, top quark, muon, and muon neutrino lepton.