Definition

1. Noun:
   • A demographic cohort: "Generation X" refers to the generation of people born following the post-World War II baby boom, typically defined as those born from the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s. It is often characterized by its experience during a time of shifting societal values and technological change.

Usage

• The term is used as a proper noun to identify and discuss this specific demographic group in social, cultural, and economic contexts.
• It is commonly abbreviated as Gen X.

Examples

• Noun:
  • Many members of Generation X grew up with the emergence of personal computers and MTV.
  • The study compared the workplace attitudes of Baby Boomers and Generation X.
  • She is a quintessential Generation X-er, skeptical of institutions and self-reliant.

Advanced Usage

• "Gen X": The standard abbreviation.
  • Gen X is sometimes called the "latchkey generation" due to higher rates of dual-career households.
• "X-er" or "Gen X-er": A colloquial term for a member of Generation X.
  • As an X-er, he remembers the transition from analog to digital.

Variants and Related Words

• Generational cohort: A broader term for a group of people born and living around the same time.
• Baby Boomers: The generation preceding Generation X, born approximately between 1946 and 1964.
• Millennials (Generation Y): The generation following Generation X, born approximately from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Synonyms

• Gen X: The direct abbreviated synonym.
• The Thirteenth Generation: A less common alternative name, referencing it as the thirteenth generation since American independence.

Related Idioms/Phrases

• Latchkey generation: An idiom often associated with Generation X, describing children who regularly returned from school to an empty home.
  • The latchkey generation learned independence at a young age.
• Slacker generation: A sometimes pejorative stereotype suggesting a lack of ambition, though this characterization is widely debated.
  • The media initially portrayed Generation X as the slacker generation.

Noun

1. the generation following the baby boom (especially Americans and Canadians born in the 1960s and 1970s)