class

plural classes

1. countableA group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.

   That is one class-A heifer you got there, sonny.

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   The new Ford Fiesta is set to be best in the 'small family' class.

   Often used to imply membership of a large class.

   This word has a whole class of metaphoric extensions.

   So I ask you to accept my statement that my critics fall into two classes: on the one hand my immediate accusers, and on the other those earlier ones whom I have mentioned; […]

   1954, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick, “Socrates on Trial: The Apology”, in The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics), Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 21

   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.

   2011 October 1, Saj Chowdhury, “Wolverhampton 1-2 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport

2. countablehuman sciencesA social grouping, based on job, wealth, etc. In Britain, society is commonly split into three main classes: upper class, middle class and working class.

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   Those who take part become more positively aware of how they belong to a class. Belonging to that class ceases to imply a common fate, and implies a common opportunity. They begin to recognise that the function of their class need no longer be limited: that it, too, like the demonstrations itself, can create its own function.

   1968 Autumn, John Berger, “The Nature of Mass Demonstrations”, in International Socialism, number 34, pages 11–12

   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.

   2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21

3. uncountableThe division of society into classes.

   Jane Austen's works deal with class in 18th-century England.

4. uncountableAdmirable behavior; elegance.

   Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.

   Antonyms: vulgarity

5. countableuncountableeducationA 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.

6. countableuncountableA series of lessons covering a single subject.

   I took the cooking class for enjoyment, but I also learned a lot.

7. countableuncountableA single lesson in a series.

   Tomorrow's class will cover long division.

8. countableA group of students who commenced or completed their education during a particular year. A school class.

   The class of 1982 was particularly noteworthy.

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   Thirty years ago there were only a few high schools for boys, and in 1957 the first university class consisted of only 50 young men.

   1987 October, Marianne Alireza, “Women of Saudi Arabia”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 443

9. Indiacountableuncountablea grade, standard, level of education.
10. 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.

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    The City & South London was also the first British passenger railway to offer only one class.

    2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 101

11. countablebiologyA rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.

    Magnolias belong to the class Magnoliopsida.

12. countableuncountableBest of its kind.

    It is the class of Italian bottled waters.

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    The mark made by Cory a new Central A. U. mark and he appears to be the class of the field in this event.

    1913 June 27, “The Crime Is Not in Making a Mistake, but in Repeating It.”, in Chicago Tribune

    University of Southern California's 7 to 0 defeat of the mighty Cardinal team ranked the victors the class of the far west

    1929 October 27, “89,000 Watch So. California Defeat Stanford, 7 to 0”, in Chicago Tribune

    Roosevelt (14-1) looked very much like the class of the OIA.

    2009 May 8, “Waianae forces OIA rematch”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin

13. countableuncountablemathematicsA grouping of data values in an interval, often used for computation of a frequency distribution.
14. countableuncountablemathematicsA 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.

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    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.

    1973, Abraham Fraenkel, Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, Azriel Lévy, Foundations of Set Theory, 2nd edition, Elsevier, page 119

15. countableuncountablegovernmentA group of people subject to be conscripted in the same military draft, or more narrowly those persons actually conscripted in a particular draft.
16. countableobject-oriented programmingA 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.

    an abstract base class

17. countableuncountableOne of the sections into which a Methodist church or congregation is divided, supervised by a class leader.

present singular third person classes · participle present classing · participle past classed · past classed

1. transitiveTo assign to a class; to classify.

   I would class this with most of the other mediocre works of the period.

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   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

2. intransitiveTo be grouped or classed.

   the genus or family under which it classes

   1790, Edward Tatham, The Chart and Scale of Truth

3. transitiveTo divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.

1. GeordieIrelandnot comparableslanggreat; fabulous

   To talented authors Tim Ash and Brian Reich for introducing me to John Wiley & Sons—a truly class outfit.

   2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics

1. abbreviationastronomyAbbreviation of Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor.
2. abbreviationastronomyAbbreviation of Cosmology Large Angular Scale Survey.