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• Lost Generation
  Lost Generation

  noun

  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.
• lost generation
  lost generation

  The young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to move into a settled life. Gertrude Stein is usually credited with popularizing the expression.

Lost Generation

American  

noun

1. 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.

2. a group of American writers of this generation, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos.

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Lost Generation British  

noun

1. the large number of talented young men killed in World War I

2. the generation of writers, esp American authors such as Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, active after World War I

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lost generation Cultural  

1. The young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to move into a settled life. Gertrude Stein is usually credited with popularizing the expression.

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Discover More

The characters in the book The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, are examples of the lost generation.

Etymology

Origin of Lost Generation

First recorded in 1925–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Lost Generation lost generation

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

There is France, where he mingled with John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald as a charter member of the Lost Generation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2019

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 report warned that one in six young people would be out of work in five years without action, adding: "We are at risk of a lost generation."

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Its author, former minister Alan Milburn, warned of a potential "lost generation".

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 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

We sit on a bench and let it wash over us, wondering what ghosts of the lost generation would make of this, our Spain.

From Salon ● Nov. 8, 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

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