From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
class
n 1: a collection of things sharing a common attribute; "there
are two classes of detergents" [syn: class, category,
family]
2: a body of students who are taught together; "early morning
classes are always sleepy" [syn: class, form, grade,
course]
3: people having the same social, economic, or educational
status; "the working class"; "an emerging professional class"
[syn: class, stratum, social class, {socio-economic
class}]
4: education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings; "he
took a course in basket weaving"; "flirting is not unknown in
college classes" [syn: course, course of study, {course
of instruction}, class]
5: a league ranked by quality; "he played baseball in class D
for two years"; "Princeton is in the NCAA Division 1-AA"
[syn: class, division]
6: a body of students who graduate together; "the class of '97";
"she was in my year at Hoehandle High" [syn: class, year]
7: (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders
8: elegance in dress or behavior; "she has a lot of class"
v 1: arrange or order by classes or categories; "How would you
classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?" [syn:
classify, class, sort, assort, sort out,
separate]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Class \Class\ (kl[.a]s), n. [F. classe, fr. L. classis class,
collection, fleet; akin to Gr. klh^sis a calling, kalei^n to
call, E. claim, haul.]
1. A group of individuals ranked together as possessing
common characteristics; as, the different classes of
society; the educated class; the lower classes.
[1913 Webster]
2. A number of students in a school or college, of the same
standing, or pursuing the same studies.
[1913 Webster]
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, genera, etc.
[1913 Webster]
4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety.
[1913 Webster]
She had lost one class energies. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
6. One session of formal instruction in which one or more
teachers instruct a group on some subject. The class may
be one of a course of classes, or a single special
session.
[PJC]
7. A high degree of elegance, in dress or behavior; the
quality of bearing oneself with dignity, grace, and social
adeptness.
[PJC]
Class of a curve (Math.), the kind of a curve as expressed
by the number of tangents that can be drawn from any point
to the curve. A circle is of the second class.
Class meeting (Methodist Church), a meeting of a class
under the charge of a class leader, for counsel and
relegious instruction.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Class \Class\ (kl[.a]s), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Classed
(kl[.a]st); p. pr. & vb. n. Classing.] [Cf. F. classer. See
Class, n.]
1. To arrange in classes; to classify or refer to some class;
as, to class words or passages.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In scientific arrangement, to classify is used instead
of to class. --Dana.
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2. To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or
place in, a class or classes.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Class \Class\, v. i.
To be grouped or classed.
[1913 Webster]
The genus or family under which it classes. --Tatham.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Class \Class\ (kl[.a]s), a.
exhibiting refinement and high character; as, a class act.
Opposite of low-class [informal]
Syn: high-class. [PJC]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
class
1. <programming> The prototype for an object in an
object-oriented language; analogous to a derived type in a
procedural language. A class may also be considered to be a
set of objects which share a common structure and behaviour.
The structure of a class is determined by the {class
variables} which represent the state of an object of that
class and the behaviour is given by a set of methods
associated with the class.
Classes are related in a class hierarchy. One class may be
a specialisation (a "subclass") of another (one of its
"superclasses") or it may be composed of other classes or it
may use other classes in a client-server relationship. A
class may be an abstract class or a concrete class.
See also signature.
2. <programming> See type class.
3. <networking> One of three types of Internet addresses
distinguished by their most significant bits.
3. <language> A language developed by the Andrew Project.
It was one of the first attempts to add object-oriented
features to C.
(1995-05-01)