the generation of men and women who came of age during or immediately following World War I: viewed, as a result of their war experiences and the social upheaval of the time, as cynical, disillusioned, and without cultural or emotional stability.
a group of American writers of this generation, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos.
the large number of talented young men killed in World War I
the generation of writers, esp American authors such as Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, active after World War I
The characters in the book The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, are examples of the lost generation.
First recorded in 1925–30
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Appeared in the May 29, 2026, print edition as 'Britain’s Lost Generation of Workers'.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
That stagnation eventually persisted so long that some began to refer to it as the "Lost Generation."
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2023
"As a kid, I wanted to be part of the Lost Generation who came to France. Hang out at the Coupole with Picasso and Giacometti," he told the paper.
From Reuters ● Sep. 12, 2022
What about the Lost Generation of the 1920s?
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2022
Others, like the writers of the Lost Generation, reveled in exposing the hypocrisies and shallowness of mainstream middle-class culture.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014
The former chief executive of Marks & Spencer has been brought in by the government to help get more young people into work after a review warned of a "lost generation".
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
The study cautions that Gaza faces a serious risk of a "lost" generation due to the combined educational, physical, and psychological toll of the war.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 11, 2026
Jake and his friends stayed at the Hotel Montoya, a fictional stand-in for the long-gone Hotel Quintana, where Juanito Quintana, Hemingway’s friend and fellow bullfight aficionado, once welcomed the lost generation.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
With Gaza's education system shattered by two years of gruelling war, UNICEF's regional director says he fears for a "lost generation" of children wandering ruined streets with nothing to do.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2025
Once I knew the City very well, spent my attic days there, while others were being a lost generation in Paris.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
