generational

IPA/ˌdʒenəˈreɪʃənl/
KK[dʒˌɛnɚˈeʃənəl]IPA/ˌdʒenəˈreɪʃənl/

generational — adjective

  • generationalpositive
  • more generationalcomparative
  • most generationalsuperlative

1. describing something that affects, divides, or is shared by people of one age gr

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

describing something that affects, divides, or is shared by people of one age group or by people of different age groups within a family or society

Example

Reuben argued with his grandmother about climate change, and the generational gap between them was clear.

generational gap / generational divide

The family bakery has been passed down through four generational shifts since 1902.

attributive use: generational + noun

Common collocations
  • generational gap
  • generational divide
  • generational differences
  • generational change
  • generational wealth
  • generational trauma
  • generational shift
Synonyms
  • intergenerational

    more formal; emphasises something happening between two or more generations

  • hereditary

    narrower; biological or family inheritance only

  • ancestral

    looks back through many past generations; more emotive

Grammar Patterns

generational + noun

Usage Note

Almost always used attributively before a noun (generational gap, generational wealth, generational trauma); rarely follows 'be'. Often signals an inherited or shared trait across parents and children, or a divide separating two age cohorts.

Common Mistakes

My grandfather is very generational.
There is a generational gap between my grandfather and me.
'generational' describes a thing shared or divided across ages, not a person's character.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words touch on something passed across or shared between generations, but they aim at different things. 'Generational' is the broadest and most everyday: it labels anything tied to one age cohort or to the differences between cohorts, like a generational gap or generational wealth. 'Intergenerational' is more formal and academic; it specifies an interaction between two or more generations, so an intergenerational study compares groups, while a generational shift just describes change over time. 'Hereditary' narrows the scope to biology or family rights: a hereditary illness, a hereditary title. 'Ancestral' looks much further back and carries emotional weight, as in an ancestral home or ancestral lands. So you might describe a quarrel over phones as a generational dispute, a researcher's report as intergenerational, an illness as hereditary, and a remote village as ancestral.

generational ↗intergenerational ↗hereditary ↗ancestral ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • generational divide
  • generational wealth
  • generational trauma

Prepositions

  • generational (gap) between

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Formed in English in the nineteenth century from the noun 'generation' (a group of people born around the same time) plus the adjective-forming suffix '-al'. The noun 'generation' itself came into English from Old French and ultimately from Latin 'generatio', meaning the act of producing offspring. The modern sociological meaning, focused on differences and ties between age cohorts, became widespread only in the twentieth century alongside the rise of demographic and family studies.