Meanings
- The generation of people born from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.
The Silent Generation produced such counterculture leaders as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Huey Newton and Abbie Hoffman.
2 more examples
Reminiscence therapy targets this age range, and for those Silent Generation members now in their 70s and 80s, that means the 1950s.
2018 September 18, Amanda Kolson Hurley, “Fake Public Squares Are Coming to the Suburbs”, in The AtlanticLike his character, Stiller was Gen X, but he didn’t have Boomer parents; his mother and father were part of the Silent Generation, and more important, they were in showbiz.
2019 March 6, Soraya Roberts, “Reality Bites Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony”, in The Atlantic
Origin
Popularized in a Time article in 1951. So called because they were not often politically strident.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Māori reanga ngū
- reanga ngūgeneration of people born from the late 1920s to the early 1940s
Polish ciche pokolenie
- ciche pokoleniegeneration of people born from the late 1920s to the early 1940s
Cite this entry
Silent Generation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Silent%20Generation
“Silent Generation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Silent%20Generation. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Silent Generation,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Silent%20Generation.
Source: Silent Generation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.