Meanings
gen1
- CommonwealthIrelandUKinformaluncountableInformation.
Nose around any modest-sized station and the odds are you'll find that the chargeman's office doubles as a bashers' club, a place where shivering spotters can get warm and catch up on the gen.
2015, Nicholas Whittaker, Platform Souls: The Trainspotter as 20th-Century Hero - uncountablebiologyInformation about the location of a bird.
I had some recent gen that they had been seen quite recently at Kunoth Well, a little dot on the map on the edge of the Tanami Desert.
2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 172 - slanguncountablelifestyleFan fiction that does not specifically focus on romance or sex.
Synonyms: genfic
- not comparablegeneral
gen2
gen3
present singular third person gens · participle present genning · participle past genned · past genned
- To generate using an automated process, especially a computer program.
genned with a LLM
4 more examples
Defining the devices so that they will be genned during the sysgen and installation is the other half.
1991, Bruce H. Hunter, Karen Bradford Hunter, UNIX Systems: Advanced Administration and Management HandbookThe older, genned files are difficult to keep up-to-date and are unsupported for some newer NICs.
1993, Debra R. Niedermiller-Chaffins, Drew Heywood, Inside Novell NetWare, →ISBN, page 100As the capacities of the large servers are exceeded, a new server is genned into the RAC cluster.
2010, Donald K. Burleson, Oracle Tuning: The Definitive Reference, →ISBN, page 1109The Turing factories on Isis's small moon had fallen short of productivity goals, though another two factory units had been genned.
2012, Robert Charles Wilson, Bios, →ISBN
gen4
present singular third person gens · participle present genning · participle past genned · past genned
- literatureTo genetically engineer.
Her nurturer ears, genned to be hyper-sensitive, had to be hurting from the noise.
2011, Karen Sandler, Tankborn, →ISBN, page 281 more example
Samples could be taken from the original, and plans could be made, but genning could not be initiated until death had occurred.
2008, Bart Dahmer, Primal Screams, →ISBN, page 36
gen5
plural gens
- UKobsoleteslangA shilling.
"Give me two gen, then, and take the whole bloody tol. I've walked me teef orf afore rouf this mornin', and wot 'ave I got? Two bloody yenneps! I ask yer."
1978, Rose Ayers, The Street Sparrows1 more example
The betting also began to shift. "Sixpence Ned wins!" cried three or four; "Sixpence he loses!" answered another; "Done!" and up went the halfpence. "Half-a-crown Joe loses!"—"Here you are," answered Joe, but he lost again. "I'll try you a 'gen'" (shilling) said a coster; "And a 'rouf yenap'" (fourpence), added the other. "Say a 'exes'" (sixpence).—"Done!" and the betting continued, till the ground was spotted with silver and halfpence.
1851, Henry Mayhew, “Gambling of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 17
gen6
plural gens
- informalA generation (group of people born in a specific range of years).
It’s anyone’s guess whether such attitudes will persist into adulthood, but if Gen Z (and the gens to come) do prove more alco-skeptic than their forbears then the above twelve steps are deftly primed to cash in.
2022 July 4, Ben Schott, “Is There Anything That Gen Z Won’t Drink?”, in The Washington Post1 more example
"Mladenovic playing in what the young gen is calling a crop top, but what my gen is calling a bra," Bouchard tweeted. "Sign of the times that Wimbledon has no issue with that. Still can remember the year some had troubles because of 'too short' skirts lol."
2022 June 28, “Wimbledon tennis: Fans react to Kristina Mladenovic's eye-catching outfit”, in The New Zealand Herald, archived from the original on 26 Oct 2022 - in compoundsinformalA specific version of something in a chronological sequence.
For my fellow first-gens, get ready to hide a smirk, because your life story is likely hidden somewhere in this chapter. For the uninitiated—that is, the person who's never had a thing to do with the Arab way of doing things (namely dating)—I advise you to buckle up.
2004, Sally Bishai, “Courtship, Marriage and the Ubiquitous ‘Dating Thing’”, in Mid-East Meets West: On Being and Becoming a Modern Arab American, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 572 more examples
[…] I witness firsthand the difficult "downstream" outcomes (Grusky 2014) of social class stratification in a university setting where approximately 3,400 undergraduates (13% of the undergraduate population) are first in their families to attend and/or graduate from college (first-gens). Most of these students are low income and nearly 1,200 first-gens have grown up in poverty.
2016, Dwight Lang, “Witnessing Social Class in the Academy”, in Allison L. Hurst, Sandi Kawecka Nenga, editors, Working in Class: Recognizing How Social Class Shapes Our Academic Work, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, part 2 (Teaching), page 102The Family Values and Framing Strategy steps address soft issues as what is the purpose of the new investment strategy, is there a desire to engage and train the next generation (Next Gens), and is there building buy-in and engagement across the family members important to strengthen family unity.
2017, Temple Fennell, “SCIE: Sustainable Cycle of Investing Engagement”, in Kirby Rosplock, The Complete Direct Investing Handbook: A Guide for Family Offices, Qualified Purchasers, and Accredited Investors (Bloomberg Financial Series), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 242
gen7
- Internetabbreviationclippingnot comparableClipping of genuinely.
Gen8
- A Niger-Congo language of Togo.
Gen9
plural Gens
- CatholicismA member of the Gen Movement, a youth expression of the international Focolare Movement.
Gen10
- A female given name, a short form of Genevieve.
Hal. Oh, don't fuss, Gen. I'll do my part all right. Mamma's 'structed me, you know. Genevieve. Instructed, Hal.
1894, Harper's Young People, page 2081 more example
“Gen? Listen, I'm so sorry I did that, Gen. You gotta believe me. I'm not like this and you know it.” “Listen...Kyle, I...I don't think I want to see you anymore.” Genevieve's voice cracked. “Gen!”
2017, Emma G Prince, The Silent Life of Genevieve, →ISBN
Gen11
plural Gens
- alternativeAlternative form of Gen. (“General”).
1 more example
Particularly notable was the presence not just of Nato’s military chief, the American Gen Christopher Cavoli, but also Adm Sir Tony Radakin, Britain’s most senior military officer, who is now acknowledged in Washington and Kyiv as an increasingly important actor in helping Ukraine overcome the Russian invaders.
2023 August 26, Dan Sabbagh, “‘That’s our guy’: how UK military chief became key Nato liaison in Ukraine”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
GEN12
Synonyms & antonyms
nounFan fiction that does not specifically focus on romance or sex.
nounA generator (device that converts mechanical to electrical energy).
Origin
gen · noun
Etymology unknown. Possibilities include: * Clipping of argent * Clipping of generalise, from back slang for English shilling.
Full word history & related roots →Gen · noun
- Italiangenerazione nuova
- EnglishGen
Shortened from new generation, from Italian generazione nuova.
More words from Italian
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with gen
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
gen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gen
“gen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gen. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gen,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gen.
Source: gen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.