/klɑːs/, /klæs/, /klas/
OriginFrom 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.
- countableA 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.”
- countableA social grouping, based on job, wealth, etc. In Britain, society is commonly split into three main classes: upper class, middle class and working class.
“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 s”
- uncountableThe division of society into classes.
“Jane Austen's works deal with class in 18th-century England.”
- uncountableAdmirable behavior; elegance.
“Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.”
- countable, uncountableA 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.”
- countable, uncountableA series of lessons covering a single subject.
“I took the cooking class for enjoyment, but I also learned a lot.”
- countable, uncountableA single lesson in a series.
“Tomorrow's class will cover long division.”
- countableA group of students who commenced or completed their education during a particular year. A school class.
“The class of 1982 was particularly noteworthy.”
- India, countable, uncountablea grade, standard, level of education.
- countableA 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.”
“The City & South London was also the first British passenger railway to offer only one class.”
- countableA rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.
“Magnolias belong to the class Magnoliopsida.”
- countable, uncountableBest of its kind.
“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”
- countable, uncountableA grouping of data values in an interval, often used for computation of a frequency distribution.
- countable, uncountableA collection of sets definable by a shared property, especially one which is not itself a set (in which case the class is called proper).
“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 ”
- countable, uncountableA group of people subject to be conscripted in the same military draft, or more narrowly those persons actually conscripted in a particular draft.
- countableA 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.
- countable, uncountableOne of the sections into which a Methodist church or congregation is divided, supervised by a class leader.
- transitiveTo assign to a class; to classify.
“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 phen”
- intransitiveTo be grouped or classed.
“the genus or family under which it classes”
- transitiveTo divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
- Geordie, Ireland, not-comparable, slanggreat; fabulous
“To talented authors Tim Ash and Brian Reich for introducing me to John Wiley & Sons—a truly class outfit.”
- abbreviation, alt-ofAbbreviation of Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor.
- abbreviation, alt-ofAbbreviation of Cosmology Large Angular Scale Survey.
Formsclasses(plural) · classes(present, singular, third-person) · classing(participle, present) · classed(participle, past) · classed(past)