in entomology. a cohort of individuals _1_.. going through or having gone through a complete life cycle. Under favorable conditions. some pests can have more than one generation per year.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
generation (noun)
1.
a) a body of living beings constituting a single step in the line of descent from an ancestor
b) a group of individuals born and living contemporaneously
c) a group of individuals having contemporaneously a status (as that of students in a school) which each one holds only for a limited period
d) a type or class of objects usually developed from an earlier type - first of the … new generation of powerful supersonic fighters Kenneth Koyen
2.
a) the action or process of producing offspring - procreation
b) the process of coming or bringing into being - generation of income
c) origination by a process - generating production , especially formation of a geometric figure by motion of another
3.
the average span of time between the birth of parents and that of their offspring
generation (Wikipedia)

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 thirty years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children of their own". In kinship terminology, it is a structural term designating the parent-child relationship. It is also known as biogenesis, reproduction, or procreation in the biological sciences.

Generation is also often used synonymously with cohort in social science; under this formulation it means "people within a delineated population who experience the same significant events within a given period of time". Generations in this sense of birth cohort, also known as "social generations", are widely used in popular culture, and have been the basis for sociological analysis. Serious analysis of generations began in the nineteenth century, emerging from an increasing awareness of the possibility of permanent social change and the idea of youthful rebellion against the established social order. Some analysts believe that a generation is one of the fundamental social categories in a society, while others view its importance as being overshadowed by other factors including class, gender, race, and education, among others.

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