Etimology
From Middle 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”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, shout”). Doublet of clas and classis.
noun
class (countable and uncountable, plural classes)
(countable) A group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.
(sociology, 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.
(uncountable) The division of society into classes.
(uncountable) Admirable behavior; elegance.
(education, countable and uncountable) A group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher.
A series of lessons covering a single subject.
(countable) A group of students who commenced or completed their education during a particular year. A school class.
(countable) A category of seats in an airplane, train or other means of mass transportation.
(taxonomy, countable) A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.
Best of its kind.
(statistics) A grouping of data values in an interval, often used for computation of a frequency distribution.
(set theory) A collection of sets definable by a shared property, especially one which is not itself a set (in which case the class is called proper).
(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.
(object-oriented programming, countable) A set of objects having the same behavior (but typically differing in state), or a template defining such a set in terms of its common properties, functions, etc.
One of the sections into which a Methodist church or congregation is divided, supervised by a class leader.
Examples
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.
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.
Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
Jane Austen's works deal with class in 18th-century England.
Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.
The class was noisy, but the teacher was able to get their attention with a story.
I took the cooking class for enjoyment, but I also learned a lot.
The class of 1982 was particularly noteworthy.
I used to fly business class, but now my company can only afford economy.
The City & South London was also the first British passenger railway to offer only one class.
Magnolias belong to the class Magnoliopsida.
It is the class of Italian bottled waters.
The mark made by Cory a new Central A. U. mark and he appears to be the class of the field in this event.
University of Southern California's 7 to 0 defeat of the mighty Cardinal team ranked the victors the class of the far west
Roosevelt looked very much like the class of the OIA.
The class of all sets is not a set.
Every set is a class, but classes are not generally sets. A class that is not a set is called a proper class.
In the present section we shall discuss the various systems of set theory which admit, beside sets, also classes. Classes are like sets, except that they can be very comprehensive; an extreme example of a class is the class which contains all sets. […] The main point which will, in our opinion, emerge from this analysis is that set theory with classes and set theory with sets only are not two separate theories; they are, essentially, different formulations of the same underlying theory.
an abstract base class
Related words
synonyms
See also Thesaurus:class
hyponyms
business class
character class
economy class
equivalence class
first class
form class
fourth class
hard class
middle class
noun class
pitch class
professional class
school class
second class
social class
spectral class
superclass
third class
upper class
working class
related terms
class action
class clown
class diagram
class enemy
class reunion
class struggle
class tourism
touch of class
verb
class (third-person singular simple present classes, present participle classing, simple past and past participle classed)
(transitive) To assign to a class; to classify.
(intransitive) To be grouped or classed.
(transitive) To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
Examples
I would class this with most of the other mediocre works of the period.
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.
the genus or family under which it classes
adjective
class (not comparable)
(Ireland, Geordie, slang) great; fabulous
Examples
To talented authors Tim Ash and Brian Reich for introducing me to John Wiley & Sons—a truly class outfit.
Related words
related terms
class act
classify
class picture
classless
classroom
class up
class war
classy
coach class
steerage class