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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Generation \Gen`er*a"tion\, n. [OE. generacioun, F.
g['e]n['e]ration, fr.L. generatio.]
1. The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of
animals.
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2. Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or
vital; production; formation; as, the generation of
sounds, of gases, of curves, etc.
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3. That which is generated or brought forth; progeny;
offspiring.
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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.
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This is the book of the generations of Adam. --Gen.
v. 1.
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Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and
for a long season, namely, seven generations.
--Baruch vi.
3.
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All generations and ages of the Christian church.
--Hooker.
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5. Race; kind; family; breed; stock.
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Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a
dog? --Shak.
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6. (Geom.) 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.
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7. (Biol.) The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which
attend reproduction.
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Note: 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.
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{Alternate generation} (Biol.), alternation of sexual with
asexual generation, in which the products of one process
differ from those of the other, -- a form of reproduction
common both to animal and vegetable organisms. In the
simplest form, the organism arising from sexual generation
produces offspiring unlike itself, agamogenetically.
These, however, in time acquire reproductive organs, and
from their impregnated germs the original parent form is
reproduced. In more complicated cases, the first series of
organisms produced agamogenetically may give rise to
others by a like process, and these in turn to still other
generations. Ultimately, however, a generation is formed
which develops sexual organs, and the original form is
reproduced.

{Spontaneous generation} (Biol.), 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.
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