class

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Contents

English[edit]

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Etymology[edit]

From French classe, from Latin classis (a class or division of the people, assembly of people, the whole body of citizens called to arms, the army, the fleet, later a class or division in general)

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

(5) a school class.

class (countable and uncountable; plural classes)

  1. (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.
    • 2011 October 1, Saj Chowdhury, “Wolverhampton 1 - 2 Newcastle”, BBC Sport:
      The Magpies are unbeaten and enjoying their best run since 1994, although few would have thought the class of 2011 would come close to emulating their ancestors.
  2. (countable) 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.
  3. (uncountable) The division of society into classes.
    Jane Austen's works deal with class in 18th-century England.
  4. (uncountable) Admirable behavior; elegance.
    Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.
  5. (countable and uncountable) 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.
  6. A series of classes covering a single subject.
    I took the cooking class for enjoyment, but I also learned a lot.
  7. (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.
  8. (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.
  9. (biology, taxonomy, countable) A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.
    Magnolias belong to the class Magnoliopsida.
  10. Best of its kind.
    It is the class of Italian bottled waters.
    • 1913 Jun 27, “The Crime Is Not in Making a Mistake, but in Repeating It.”, Chicago Tribune:
      The mark made by Cory a new Central A. U. mark and he appears to be the class of the field in this event.
    • 1929 Oct 27, “89,000 Watch So. California Defeat Stanford, 7 to 0”, Chicago Tribune:
      University of Southern California's 7 to 0 defeat of the mighty Cardinal team ranked the victors the class of the far west
    • 2009 May 8, “Waianae forces OIA rematch”, Honolulu Star-Bulletin:
      Roosevelt (14-1) looked very much like the class of the OIA.
  11. (mathematics) A collection of sets definable by a shared property.
    The class of all sets is not a set.
  12. (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.
  13. (programming, object-oriented) A set of objects having the same behavior (but typically differing in state), or a template defining such a set.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

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Verb[edit]

class (third-person singular simple present classes, present participle classing, simple past and past participle classed)

  1. (transitive) To assign to a class; to classify.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, The Mirror and the Lamp[1]:
      She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
    I would class this with most of the other mediocre works of the period.
  2. (intransitive) To be grouped or classed.
    The genus or family under which it classes. — Tatham.
  3. (transitive) To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

class (not comparable)

  1. (Ireland, UK, slang) great; fabulous

Related terms[edit]

Statistics[edit]

External links[edit]