generation

1. (now US, dialectal) Race, family; breed.Examples: "Thy Mothers of my generation: what's she, if I be a Dogge?"UScountabledialectaluncountable

2. (now obsolete, Nigeria) Descendants, progeny; offspring.Nigeriacountableobsoleteuncountable

3. (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.Examples: "the generation of a line or curve"countableuncountable

4. (television) A copy of a recording made from an earlier copy.Examples: "With one-inch C format or half-inch Betacam used in the component mode, quality loss through additional generations is not such a problem. In this situation, it would be usual to make the necessary alterations while re-recording onto a third generation master […]"; "Each generation away from the original or master produces increased degradation in the image quality."countableuncountable

5. (cellular automata) A single iteration of a cellular automaton rule on a pattern.Examples: "It runs for 17331 generations before stabilizing as 136 blinkers, 109 blocks, 65 beehives, 18 loaves, 18 boats, 7 ships, 4 tubs, 3 ponds, 2 toads, and 40 gliders."; "The glider is fast--it moves 2 cells every 3 generations. There is also a spinning thing (sixty degrees every 21 generations)"; "In B37/S23, it goes symmetrical after 10 ticks, and produces a familiar pair of B-heptominoes after 23 ticks (the next generation after this can be found in the rotor of a standard B3/S23 p46 oscillator):"countableuncountable