Word.ws English Dictionary

beat generation

beat generation is the alternative letter-case form of Beat Generation.

Proper noun capitalized: Beat Generation

the Beat Generation

  1. A group of countercultural American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Their most important works are Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), and William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959).

Forms of beat generation

Noun
pluralbeat generations
Proper noun
alternative formbeat generation

Origin of beat generation

Often attributed to Herbert Huncke, from beat (“exhausted”), with Jack Kerouac later claiming it derived from beatific instead.

Words formed from beat generation

Questions about beat generation

What does beat generation mean?
Beat generation means a group of countercultural American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Their most important works are Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), and William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959).
What is beat generation the alternative letter-case form of?
Beat generation is the alternative letter-case form of Beat Generation.
What part of speech is beat generation?
Beat generation is a proper noun.

Words near beat generation in the dictionary

  1. beat cops
  2. beat down
  3. beat downs
  4. beat feet
  5. beat frequency oscillator
  6. beat generation
  7. beat generations
  8. beat hollow
  9. beat into
  10. beat into a cocked hat
  11. beat into fits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beat generation (page history and authors); Beat Generation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “beat generation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beat_generation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.