LOST GENERATION

What Does Lost Generation Mean?

The "Lost Generation" was the generation born between 1883 and 1901, who came of age during the First World War (WW1). They felt like they didn't quite fit in. The war had shattered their ideals and left them questioning traditional values. The American writer Gertrude Stein coined the term during a conversation with the author Ernest Hemingway. She remarked, "You are all a lost generation." Hemingway liked it so much that he used it in his book "The Sun Also Rises." It stuck.

While "Lost Generation" started with writers, the concept captured the disillusionment of the times and ballooned to include an entire generation coming of age post-war, struggling with a world that seemed to have lost its moral compass.

The Lost Generation was followed by the Greatest Generation.

Check out our page on generational cohorts.

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The Lost Generation came of age during the First World War.

Summary of Key Points

"Generation Born between 1883 and 1901" is the most common definition for Lost Generation in texting. Here are more details on the word type and users:

Lost Generation
Definition:	Generation Born between 1883 and 1901
Type:	Word
Guessability:	4: Difficult to guess
Typical Users:	Adults and Teenagers

An Academic Look at Lost Generation

image for academic look, showing a teacher with a mortar board

"Lost Generation" is a noun phrase. A noun phrase consists of a noun and its modifiers. In this case, "generation" is the noun, and "lost" is an adjective modifying the noun.