class Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a collection of things sharing a common attribute
    category; family.
    • there are two classes of detergents
  2. noun a body of students who are taught together
    grade; course; form.
    • early morning classes are always sleepy
  3. noun people having the same social, economic, or educational status
    social class; socio-economic class; stratum.
    • the working class
    • an emerging professional class
  4. noun education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings
    course of study; course; course of instruction.
    • he took a course in basket weaving
    • flirting is not unknown in college classes
  5. noun a league ranked by quality
    division.
    • he played baseball in class D for two years
    • Princeton is in the NCAA Division 1-AA
  6. noun a body of students who graduate together
    year.
    • the class of '97
    • she was in my year at Hoehandle High
  7. noun (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders
  8. noun elegance in dress or behavior
    • she has a lot of class
  9. verb arrange or order by classes or categories
    sort; separate; assort; sort out; classify.
    • How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?

WordNet

Class noun
Etymology
F. classe, fr. L. classis class, collection, fleet; akin to Gr. a calling, to call, E. claim, haul.
Definitions
  1. A group of individuals ranked together as possessing common characteristics; as, the different classes of society; the educated class; the lower classes.
  2. A number of students in a school or college, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies.
  3. A comprehensive division of animate or inanimate objects, grouped together on account of their common characteristics, in any classification in natural science, and subdivided into orders, families, tribes, gemera, etc.
  4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety.
    She had lost one class energies. Macaulay.
  5. (Methodist Church) One of the sections into which a church or congregation is divided, and which is under the supervision of a class leader.
Class transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. F. classer. See Class, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Classed ; present participle & verbal noun Classing
Definitions
  1. To arrange in classes; to classify or refer to some class; as, to class words or passages. ✍ In scientific arrangement, to classify is used instead of to class. Dana.
  2. To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
Class intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To grouped or classed.
    The genus or famiky under which it classes. Tatham.

Webster 1913