Definition of: class

(klas, kläs) noun
1. A number or body of persons with common characteristics: the educated class.
2. Social rank; caste.
3. A group of students under one teacher, or pursuing a study together; a group of students in a school or college having the same standing and graduating together.
4. Biol. A group of plants or animals standing below a phylum and above an order.
5. A number of objects, facts, or events having common accidental or essential properties; a set; kind.
6. A grading according to quality, value, or rank: fìrst–class mail; to travel second–class.
7. Slang Superiority; elegance.
— the classes The wealthier, more educated, or higher social classes.
— v.t. To arrange or group according to characteristics or properties; assign to a class; classify.
— v.i. Rare To be placed or ranked, as in a class. [<F classe <L classis group, class] Synonyms (noun): association, caste, circle, clan, clique, club, company, coterie, grade, order, rank, set. A caste is hereditary; a class may be independent of lineage or descent; membership in a caste is normally for life, and hereditary; membership in a class may be very transient; a religious and ceremonial sacredness attaches to the caste, but not to the class. Grade implies some regular scale of valuation; as, the coarser and finer grades of wool. A coterie is a small company of persons of similar tastes. A clique is always fractional, implying some greater gathering of which it it is a part; the association breaks up into cliques. A set, while exclusive, is more intensive than a clique, and chiefly of persons who are united by common social station, etc. Circle is similar in meaning to set, but of wider application; we speak of scientific as well as of social circles.