I. ˈklas noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French classe, from Latin classis group called to military service, fleet, class; perhaps akin to Latin calare to call — more at low
Date: 1602
1.
a. : a body of students meeting regularly to study the same subject
b. : the period during which such a body meets
c. : a course of instruction
d. : a body of students or alumni whose year of graduation is the same
2.
a. : a group sharing the same economic or social status
the working class
b. : social rank ; especially : high social rank
c. : high quality : elegance
a hotel with class
3. : a group, set, or kind sharing common attributes: as
a. : a major category in biological taxonomy ranking above the order and below the phylum or division
b. : a collection of adjacent and discrete or continuous values of a random variable
c. : set 21
4. : a division or rating based on grade or quality
5. : the best of its kind
the class of the league
6. : a data type in object-oriented programming that consists of a group of objects with the same properties and behaviors and that is arranged in a hierarchy with other such data types — compare object
II. transitive verb
Date: 1705
: classify