gens
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gens¹
- /d͡ʒɛnz/ US, UK
- /ɡɛns/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ɛnz
Where it comes from
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”).
noun gentes · 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 the
- 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 the
- A host-specific lineage of a brood parasite species.
gens²
- /d͡ʒɛnz/ US, UK
Where it comes from
Clipping of generations.
noun
- plural of gen (clipping of generation). 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.
gens³
verb
- third-person singular simple present indicative of gen
Gens⁴
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Gens, a variant of Jens.
proper noun Genses
- A surname from German.
Gens⁵
noun
- plural of Gen
GENs⁶
noun
- plural of GEN
Translations
Talk about this word "gens." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/gens. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. gens. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/gens "gens." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/gens.Cite this
@misc{gens_2026,
title = {gens},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/gens},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
