gens
/d͡ʒɛnz/
gens noun: a legally defined unit of Roman society, being a collection of people related through a common ancestor by birth, marriage or adoption, possibly over many generations, and sharing the same nomen gentilicium. Also the plural of gen (clipping of gen.
Noun (1)
gens (plural gentes or genses)
- A legally defined unit of Roman society, being a collection of people related through a common ancestor by birth, marriage or adoption, possibly over many generations, and sharing the same nomen gentilicium.
- [page 568, column 2] There were certain sacred rites (sacra gentilitia) which belonged to a gens, to the observance of which all the members of a gens, as such, were bound, whether they were members by birth, adoption, or adrogation. A person was freed from the observance of such sacra, and lost...1848, G[eorge] L[ong], “GENS”, in William Smith, editor, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd improved and enlarged edition, London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly, Upper Gower Street; and Ivy...
- Caius Julius Caesar belonged to the gens Julius, his father's name was Caesar, and his own individual name (praenomen) was Caius. Women were given the clan name as their own; Caesar's sister was called Julia, and a younger sister would have been called Julia Minor.1987, Frances Gies, Joseph Gies, “Roots: Roman, German, Christian”, in Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →ISBN
- A tribal subgroup whose members are characterized by having the same descent, usually along the male line; clan.
- The Kamilaroi are divided into six gentes, standing with reference to the right of marriage, in two divisions, […] Originally the first three gentes were not allowed to intermarry with each other, because they were subdivisions of an original gens; but they were permitted to marry into either of...1877, Lewis H[enry] Morgan, “Organization of Society upon the Basis of Sex”, in Ancient Society: Or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization, New...
- The taboos, the laws, the rules of gentes, tribes, and nations, from the lowest to the highest, are upheld by a vague terror and sacred awe which society impresses on man by threats of ill-luck, fearful evil, and terrible punishments befalling sinners and transgressors of the tabooed, of the holy...1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress, Boston, Mass.: Richard G. Badger, the Gorham Press, →OCLC, page 25
- A host-specific lineage of a brood parasite species.
Proper noun capitalized: Gens
Gens (plural Genses)
- A surname from German.
Noun (2) capitalized: Gens
Gens
- plural of Gen
Noun (3) capitalized: GENs
GENs
- plural of GEN
Also used as
gens is also the plural of gen (clipping of gen.
gens is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of gen.
Synonyms of gens
Forms of gens
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | gentes |
| plural | genses |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Genses |
Origin of gens
Borrowed from Latin gēns (“gens; people, tribe”), from Proto-Italic *gentis, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis (“birth; production”), from *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to give birth; to produce”) + *-tis (suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verb roots). Doublet of kind, genesis, and jati. See also gender, generate, gentile, genus; also Latin gigno (“to bring forth”).
Clipping of generations.
Borrowed from German Gens, a variant of Jens.
Words formed from gens
Phrases with gens
Words that rhyme with gens
Questions about gens
- What does gens mean?
- Gens means a legally defined unit of Roman society, being a collection of people related through a common ancestor by birth, marriage or adoption, possibly over many generations, and sharing the same nomen gentilicium.
- What part of speech is gens?
- Gens can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce gens?
- Gens is pronounced /d͡ʒɛnz/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gens?
- The plural of gens is gentes.
Words near gens in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gens (page history and authors); Gens (page history and authors); GENs (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gens1.wav.
Cite this entry: “gens.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gens. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.