Class vs. Generation — What's the Difference?
By Urooj Arif & Maham Liaqat — Updated on May 4, 2024
Class refers to a set of individuals sharing similar economic or social status, while generation describes a group of people born around the same time, often sharing similar experiences.
Difference Between Class and Generation
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Class typically describes a social hierarchy based on factors like wealth, occupation, and education, influencing individuals' lifestyles and opportunities. On the other hand, generation encompasses people born and living around the same time, who are often influenced by similar historical and cultural events.
Class divisions can be seen in the differing access to resources, education, and job opportunities among the upper, middle, and lower classes. In contrast, a generation may experience similar technological advancements, cultural shifts, or global events that shape their collective identity and perspectives.
The concept of class can lead to social mobility or stratification, depending on a society’s structure and the permeability of its class boundaries. Whereas, generational identity often leads to unique social and political attitudes, influenced by the era's defining moments.
Members within the same class may have varying degrees of power and privilege, which are often influenced by additional factors such as race, gender, and geographic location. Conversely, members of a generation can vary widely in class and social status, yet share common attitudes and experiences that mark their cohort.
Class is a more static attribute of a society, with established roles and expectations that evolve slowly over time. Generation, however, is dynamic and often at the forefront of societal change, driving movements like digital innovation and social reforms.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Group based on economic and social status
Group born and living at the same time
Key Influence
Wealth, occupation, education
Historical and cultural events
Impact on Individual
Determines access to resources and power
Shapes attitudes, technology use, values
Variation Within
Can vary in power, race, geographic location
Varied class status, but similar experiences
Societal Role
Static, slow to change
Dynamic, often drives societal change
Compare with Definitions
Class
A division of a society based on social and economic status.
She belongs to the middle class, typical of suburban areas.
Generation
People born and living about the same time.
The millennial generation is tech-savvy.
Class
A category of classification.
Mammals belong to the class Mammalia.
Generation
Successive stages of kinship.
Four generations gathered at the family reunion.
Class
A group considered the best in its category.
His novel is considered first class.
Generation
Generation of energy.
The plant focuses on the generation of renewable energy.
Class
A collection grouped by characteristics.
All objects in this class share common features.
Generation
Stages of development in technology.
Each new generation of smartphones offers more features.
Class
A group of students learning together.
The class was noisy today.
Generation
Group of contemporaneous artists or writers.
He was a poet of the Beat generation.
Class
A set, collection, group, or configuration containing members regarded as having certain attributes or traits in common; a kind or category.
Generation
A generation is "all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively." It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children." In kinship terminology, it is a structural term designating the parent-child relationship. It is known as biogenesis, reproduction, or procreation in the biological sciences.
Class
A grade of mail
A package sent third class.
Generation
All of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively
One of his generation's finest songwriters
Class
A quality of accommodation on public transport
Tourist class.
Generation
The production or creation of something
Methods of electricity generation
The generation of wealth
Class
A social stratum whose members share certain economic, social, or cultural characteristics
The lower-income classes.
Generation
The people born and living about the same time, considered as a group
The baby-boom generation.
Class
Social rank or caste, especially high rank.
Generation
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.
Class
(Informal)Elegance of style, taste, and manner
An actor with class.
Generation
All of the offspring that are at the same stage of descent from a common ancestor
Mother and daughters represent two generations.
Class
A group of students who are taught together, usually at a regularly scheduled time and in the same subject.
Generation
A stage or period of sequential technological development and innovation.
Class
The period during which such a group meets
Had to stay after class.
Generation
A class of objects derived from a preceding class
A new generation of computers.
Class
The subject material taught to or studied by such a group
Found the math class challenging.
Generation
The formation of a line or geometric figure by the movement of a point or line.
Class
A group of students or alumni who have the same year of graduation.
Generation
The act or process of generating; origination, production, or procreation.
Class
(Biology)A taxonomic category ranking below a phylum or division and above an order.
Generation
(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.
Class
(Statistics)An interval in a frequency distribution.
Generation
The act of creating something or bringing something into being; production, creation.
Class
(Linguistics)A group of words belonging to the same grammatical category that share a particular set of morphological properties, such as a set of inflections.
Generation
The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation.
Class
(Mathematics)A collection of sets whose members share a specified property.
Generation
Race, family; breed.
Class
To arrange, group, or rate according to qualities or characteristics; assign to a class; classify.
Generation
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.
This is the book of the generations of Adam - Genesis 5:1
Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations - Baruch 6:3
All generations and ages of the Christian church - Richard Hooker
Class
(countable) A group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.
The new Ford Fiesta is set to be best in the 'small family' class.
That is one class-A heifer you got there, sonny.
Often used to imply membership of a large class.
This word has a whole class of metaphoric extensions.
Generation
(obsolete) Descendants, progeny; offspring.
Class
A social grouping, based on job, wealth, etc. In Britain, society is commonly split into three main classes: upper class, middle class and working class.
Generation
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.
Class
(uncountable) The division of society into classes.
Jane Austen's works deal with class in 18th-century England.
Generation
A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology.
Class
(uncountable) Admirable behavior; elegance.
Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.
Generation
(geometry) 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.
The generation of a line or curve
Class
A group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher.
The class was noisy, but the teacher was able to get their attention with a story.
Generation
A group of people born in a specific range of years and whose members can relate culturally to one another.
Generation X grew up in the eighties, whereas the generation known as the millennials grew up in the nineties.
Class
A series of lessons covering a single subject.
I took the cooking class for enjoyment, but I also learned a lot.
Generation
A version of a form of pop culture which differs from later or earlier versions.
People sometimes dispute which generation of Star Trek is best, including the original and The Next Generation.
Class
(countable) A group of students who commenced or completed their education during a particular year. A school class.
The class of 1982 was particularly noteworthy.
Generation
(television) A copy of a recording made from an earlier copy and thus further degraded in quality.
Class
(countable) A category of seats in an airplane, train or other means of mass transportation.
I used to fly business class, but now my company can only afford economy.
Generation
The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals.
Class
A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.
Magnolias belong to the class Magnoliopsida.
Generation
Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, etc.
Class
Best of its kind.
It is the class of Italian bottled waters.
Generation
That which is generated or brought forth; progeny; offspiring.
Class
(statistics) A grouping of data values in an interval, often used for computation of a frequency distribution.
Generation
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.
This is the book of the generations of Adam.
Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations.
All generations and ages of the Christian church.
Class
(set theory) A collection of sets definable by a shared property.
The class of all sets is not a set.
Every set is a class, but classes are not generally sets. A class that is not a set is called a proper class.
Generation
Race; kind; family; breed; stock.
Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a dog?
Class
(military) A group of people subject to be conscripted in the same military draft, or more narrowly those persons actually conscripted in a particular draft.
Generation
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.
Class
A set of objects having the same behavior (but typically differing in state), or a template defining such a set in terms of its common properties, functions, etc.
An abstract base class
Generation
The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which attend reproduction.
Class
One of the sections into which a Methodist church or congregation is divided, supervised by a class leader.
Generation
All the people living at the same time or of approximately the same age
Class
(transitive) To assign to a class; to classify.
I would class this with most of the other mediocre works of the period.
Generation
Group of genetically related organisms constituting a single step in the line of descent
Class
(intransitive) To be grouped or classed.
Generation
The normal time between successive generations;
They had to wait a generation for that prejudice to fade
Class
(transitive) To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
Generation
A stage of technological development or innovation;
The third generation of computers
Class
Great; fabulous
Generation
A coming into being
Class
A group of individuals ranked together as possessing common characteristics; as, the different classes of society; the educated class; the lower classes.
Generation
The production of heat or electricity;
Dams were built for the generation of electricity
Class
A number of students in a school or college, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies.
Generation
The act of producing offspring or multiplying by such production
Class
A comprehensive division of animate or inanimate objects, grouped together on account of their common characteristics, in any classification in natural science, and subdivided into orders, families, tribes, genera, etc.
Class
A set; a kind or description, species or variety.
She had lost one class energies.
Class
One of the sections into which a church or congregation is divided, and which is under the supervision of a class leader.
Class
One session of formal instruction in which one or more teachers instruct a group on some subject. The class may be one of a course of classes, or a single special session.
Class
A high degree of elegance, in dress or behavior; the quality of bearing oneself with dignity, grace, and social adeptness.
Class
To arrange in classes; to classify or refer to some class; as, to class words or passages.
Class
To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
Class
To be grouped or classed.
The genus or family under which it classes.
Class
Exhibiting refinement and high character; as, a class act. Opposite of low-class
Class
People having the same social or economic status;
The working class
An emerging professional class
Class
A body of students who are taught together;
Early morning classes are always sleepy
Class
Education imparted in a series of lessons or class meetings;
He took a course in basket weaving
Flirting is not unknown in college classes
Class
A collection of things sharing a common attribute;
There are two classes of detergents
Class
A body of students who graduate together;
The class of '97
She was in my year at Hoehandle High
Class
A league ranked by quality;
He played baseball in class D for two years
Princeton is in the NCAA Division 1-AA
Class
Elegance in dress or behavior;
She has a lot of class
Class
(biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders
Class
Arrange or order by classes or categories;
How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?
Common Curiosities
Can someone change their class?
Yes, individuals can change their class through factors like education, wealth, or marriage.
How do class and generation interact?
Class can affect the resources and opportunities available within a generation, while generational values can influence perceptions of class.
What are examples of classes?
Examples include the upper class, middle class, and working class.
How does generation affect culture?
Generations shape culture through shared experiences and the dominant technologies and values of their time.
How is class measured?
Class is often measured by factors such as income, education, occupation, and inherited wealth.
Why is class important in society?
Class influences individuals' lifestyles, opportunities, and how they are perceived by others.
What is a social class?
A social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status.
What is generational identity?
Generational identity refers to the traits and shared experiences that define a particular group of people born around the same period.
What is a generation gap?
A generation gap refers to the different opinions, habits, and values between younger and older people.
What marks the start of a new generation?
New generations are often marked by significant social, economic, or technological changes.
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Written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
Co-written by
Maham Liaqat
