Definition of generation:

• In the long-lived patriarchal age a generation seems to have been computed at 100 years, ( Genesis 15:16 ) comp. Genesis15:13 and Eccl 12:40 but subsequently the reckoning was the same which has been adopted by modern civilized nations, viz. from thirty to forty years ( Job 42:16 ) ( Generation is also used to signify the men of an age or time, as contemporaries, ( Genesis 6:9 ; Isaiah 53:8 ) posterity , especially in legal formulae, ( Leviticus 3:17 ) etc.; fathers, or ancestors. ( Psalms 49:19 ) [ E] indicates this entry was also found in Easton's Bible Dictionary[J] indicates this entry was also found in Jack Van Impe's Prophecy Dictionary
• 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.
• Genesis 2:4 , " These are the generations," means the " history." 5:1 , " The book of the generations," means a family register, or history of Adam 37:2 , " The generations of Jacob" = the history of Jacob and his descendants 7:1 , " In this generation" = in this age. Psalms 49:19 , " The generation of his fathers" = the dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Psalms 73:15 , " The generation of thy children" = the contemporary race. Isaiah 53:8 , " Who shall declare his generation?" = His manner of life who shall declare? or rather = His race, posterity, shall be so numerous that no one shall be able to declare it. In Matthew 1:17 , the word means a succession or series of persons from the same stock. Matthew 3:7 , " Generation of vipers" = brood of vipers 24:34 , " This generation" = the persons then living contemporary with Christ. 1 Peter 2:9 , " A chosen generation" = a chosen people. The Hebrews seem to have reckoned time by the generation. In the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus: Genesis 15:16 , " In the fourth generation" = in four hundred years ( Compare verse 13 and Exodus 12:40 ). In Deuteronomy 1:35 and 2:14 a generation is a period of thirty-eight years.
• May mean either a de gree of removal in computing descents, or asingle succession of living beings in natural descent. McMillan v. School Committee, 107N. C. 609, 12 S. E. 330, 10 L. R. A. 823.
• the normal time between successive generations; " they had to wait a generation for that prejudice to fade"
• the production of heat or electricity; " dams were built for the generation of electricity"
• group of genetically related organisms constituting a single step in the line of descent
• a stage of technological development or innovation; " the third generation of computers"
• The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals.
• Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, etc.
• That which is generated or brought forth; progeny; offspiring.
• 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.
• Race; kind; family; breed; stock.
• The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which attend reproduction.
• The act of generating. A race.
• A producing or originating: that which is generated: a single stage in natural descent: the people of the same age or period: race:- pl. ( B.) genealogy, history.
• Act of producing; people of one period; race or family.
• The act of generating; reproduction; origination.
• A step in descent; the individuals existing at one time, or their average lifetime.
• Race; progeny.
• The act of generating; production; a single succession in natural descent, as the children of the same parents; an age; the people living at the same time; a series of descendants from the same stock; a race; offspring. Spontaneous generation, the presumed production of a plant or an animal without derivation from a parent.
• Production; formation; an age; people of the same period; a family; a race.
• Production; formation; the individuals of a species equally remote from a common ancestor, - see alternation of generations.

Usage examples for generation

1. The men who speak of this in the fourth or fifth generation, speak of it as an actual occurrence.  The Ethnology of the British Islands by Robert Gordon Latham

2. I presume they will be handed down in the family from generation to generation.  The Freedmen's Book by Lydia Maria Child

3. You know about their big artificial intelligence effort, called the Fifth Generation Project.  The Samurai Strategy by Thomas Hoover