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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

Example Sentences

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

"If we don't start a real transition for all children in February, we will enter a fourth year. And then we can talk about a lost generation."

From Barron's • Oct. 24, 2025

For two years, all formal face-to-face education has been on hold, with the UN warning of a "lost generation" of children.

From BBC • Oct. 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