Gēn'er-ā'tion, n.

n. [Lat. generatio, Fr. génération, Pr. generacio, Sp. generacion, It. generazione.]

1. The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals.
2. Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, and the like.
3. That which is generated; progeny; offspring.

He that makes his generation messes To gorge his appetite. Shak. 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 ordinary interval or period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child; an age. This is the book of the generations of Adam. Gen. v. 1. All generations and ages of the Christian church. Hooker. 5. Race; kind; family; breed; stock. Thy mother's of my generation; what's she if I be a dog? Shak.

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 other magnitude; as, the generation of a line or curve by the motion of a point, and the like.
7. (Physiol.) The aggregate of the functions and phenomena which attend reproduction.

Spontaneous generation, the production of living beings without parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter.