Word.ws English Dictionary

greatest generation

greatest generation proper noun: the generation of people who came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight in World War II, especially those born from the early 1900s to late 1920s.

Proper noun (1)

the greatest generation

  1. The generation of people who came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight in World War II, especially those born from the early 1900s to late 1920s.
    • Other members of the greatest generation found their life's calling in uniform, continuing to serve in the military after the war and helping it to adapt to the changing times.1998, Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation, Random House, →ISBN, page 386
    • My dad did the things that a boy remembers. […] He also taught me that we are here for something bigger than ourselves; he lived out the responsibilities and the sacrifices of the greatest generation to whom we owe so much.2004 July 29, John Kerry, 2004 Democratic National Convention Acceptance Address

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Greatest Generation

the Greatest Generation

  1. Alternative letter-case form of greatest generation.
    • What we have instead is the Greatest Generation, an idea that delineates one of the most important developments in the national mythos over the last several decades.2013, Kenneth Rose, Myth and the Greatest Generation, Routledge, →ISBN, page 2

Synonyms of greatest generation

Forms of greatest generation

alternative formGreatest Generation

Origin of greatest generation

Popularized by the 1998 book The Greatest Generation.

Questions about greatest generation

What does greatest generation mean?
Greatest generation means the generation of people who came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight in World War II, especially those born from the early 1900s to late 1920s.
What part of speech is greatest generation?
Greatest generation is a proper noun.

Words near greatest generation in the dictionary

  1. greatest common denominator
  2. greatest common divisor
  3. greatest common divisors
  4. greatest common factor
  5. greatest common factors
  6. greatest generation
  7. greatest story ever told
  8. greatest thing since sliced bread
  9. Greatford
  10. greatfruit
  11. greatfruits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: greatest generation (page history and authors); Greatest 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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