Borrowed fromLatingēns(“gens; people, tribe”), fromProto-Italic*gentis, fromProto-Indo-European*ǵénh₁tis(“birth; production”), from*ǵenh₁-(“to beget; to give birth; to produce”) +*-tis(suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verb roots).Doublet ofkind,genesis, andjati. See alsogender,generate,gentile,genus; alsoLatingigno(“I bring forth”).

• (Received Pronunciation,General American)IPA^(key):/d͡ʒɛnz/,/ɡɛns/

  • Audio(Southern England):

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  • Audio(Southern England):

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• Rhymes:-ɛnz

gens (pluralgentesorgenses)

2. (Ancient Rome,historical) Alegallydefinedunit ofRomansociety, being a collection of peoplerelated through acommonancestor bybirth,marriage oradoption, possibly over manygenerations, and sharing the samenomen gentilicium.
   • 1848,G[eorge] L[ong], “GENS”, inWilliam Smith, editor,Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd improved and enlarged edition, London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly,Upper Gower Street; and Ivy Lane,Paternoster Row;John Murray,Albemarle Street,→OCLC,pages568 and 569:

     [page 568, column 2] There were certain sacred rites (sacra gentilitia) which belonged to agens, to the observance of which all the members of agens, as such, were bound, whether they were members by birth, adoption, or adrogation. A person was freed from the observance of such sacra, and lost the privileges connected with his gentile rites, when he lost hisgens, that is, when he was adrogated, adopted, or even emancipated; for adrogation, adoption, and emancipation were accompanied by a diminutio capitis.[…] [page 569, column 2] As thegentes were subdivisions of the three ancient tribes, the populus (in the ancient sense) alone hadgentes, so that to be a patrician and to have agens were synonymous; and thus we find the expressionsgens and patricii constantly united.

   • 1987,Frances Gies,Joseph Gies, “Roots: Roman, German, Christian”, inMarriage and Family in the Middle Ages, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Row,→ISBN:

     Caius Julius Caesar belonged to thegens Julius, his father's name was Caesar, and his own individual name (praenomen) was Caius. Women were given the clan name as their own; Caesar's sister was called Julia, and a younger sister would have been called Julia Minor.

3. (anthropology) Atribalsubgroup whose members arecharacterized by having the samedescent, usually along themaleline.
   • 1877,Lewis H[enry] Morgan, “Organization of Society upon the Basis of Sex”, inAncient Society: Or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization, New York, N.Y.:Henry Holt and Company,→OCLC, part II (Growth of the Idea of Government),pages51–52:

     TheKamilaroi are divided into sixgentes, standing with reference to the right of marriage, in two divisions,[…] Originally the first threegentes were not allowed to intermarry with each other, because they were subdivisions of an originalgens; but they were permitted to marry into either of the othergentes, andvice versâ.

   • 1919,Boris Sidis,The Source and Aim of Human Progress, Boston, Mass.: Richard G. Badger, the Gorham Press,→OCLC,page25:

     The taboos, the laws, the rules ofgentes, tribes, and nations, from the lowest to the highest, are upheld by a vague terror and sacred awe which society impresses on man by threats of ill-luck, fearful evil, and terrible punishments befalling sinners and transgressors of the tabooed, of the holy and the forbidden, charged with a mysterious, highly contagious, and virulently infective life-consuming energy.

   • 2006, Dzemal Sokolovic, “Man (between Individualism and Totalitarianism)”, inNation vs. People: Bosnia is Just a Case, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press,→ISBN, part I (Man and Social Grouping),page15:

     While a woman and a man [who are native Hawaiians] primarily establish a family, they nonetheless remain members of differentgenses, and it is only as members of differentgenses that they are able to set up the family. At the same time, the children belong to thefamily of their parents, but owing to the validity of their mother's side—exclusively, to thegens of their mother. Thus, the members of one and the same family, the closest blood-related community, are members of two differentgenses.

4. (zoology) A host-specificlineage of abrood parasite species.^[W]

Regarding sense 1 (“historical Roman unit of society”), the concept is close to and often translated asclan, but the two are not identical. The alternativetribe is also sometimes used, but theLatintribus has a separate meaning.

• (Roman unit of society):clan,tribe(but see the usage note)

Clipping ofgenerations.

• (Received Pronunciation,General American)IPA^(key):/d͡ʒɛnz/

  • Audio(Southern England):

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gens

1. plural ofgen (clipping ofgeneration).
   • 2004, Sally Bishai, “Courtship, Marriage and the Ubiquitous ‘Dating Thing’”, inMid-East Meets West: On Being and Becoming a Modern Arab American, Lincoln, Neb.:iUniverse,→ISBN,page57:

     For my fellow first-gens, get ready to hide a smirk, because your life story is likely hidden somewhere in this chapter. For the uninitiated—that is, the person who's never had a thing to do with the Arab way of doing things (namely dating)—I advise you to buckle up.

   • 2016, Dwight Lang, “Witnessing Social Class in the Academy”, in Allison L. Hurst, Sandi Kawecka Nenga, editors,Working in Class: Recognizing How Social Class Shapes Our Academic Work, Lanham, Md.:Rowman & Littlefield,→ISBN, part 2 (Teaching),page102:

     […] I witness firsthand the difficult "downstream" outcomes (Grusky 2014) of social class stratification in a university setting where approximately 3,400 undergraduates (13% of the undergraduate population) are first in their families to attend and/or graduate from college (first-gens). Most of these students are low income and nearly 1,200 first-gens have grown up in poverty.

   • 2017, Temple Fennell, “SCIE: Sustainable Cycle of Investing Engagement”, in Kirby Rosplock,The Complete Direct Investing Handbook: A Guide for Family Offices, Qualified Purchasers, and Accredited Investors (Bloomberg Financial Series), Hoboken, N.J.:John Wiley & Sons,→ISBN,page242:

     TheFamily Values andFraming Strategy steps address soft issues as what is the purpose of the new investment strategy, is there a desire to engage and train the next generation (NextGens), and is there building buy-in and engagement across the family members important to strengthen family unity.

•  gens on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Seng,engs,negs

Inherited fromLatingenus.

• IPA^(key):(Central,Balearic)[ˈʒens]
• IPA^(key):(Valencia)[ˈd͡ʒens]

gens

1. (in negative phrases)at all

   No m'agradagens. ―I don't like itat all.

2. (in negative constructions) notany

   No quedagens de sal. ―There isn'tany salt left.

3. (in interrogative constructions)any

   Et quedagens de sal? ―Do you haveany salt left?

• IPA^(key):(Central,Balearic)[ˈʒɛns]
• IPA^(key):(Valencia)[ˈd͡ʒens]

gens

1. plural ofgen(“gene”)

• “gens” inDiccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició,Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “gens”, inGran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana,Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana,2025
• “gens” inDiccionari normatiu valencià,Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “gens” inDiccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Learned borrowing fromLatingēns.

• IPA^(key):/ˈɡens/,[ˈɡe̞ns̠]
• Rhymes:-ens
• Hyphenation^(key):gens

gens

1. (historical)gens(a unit in Ancient Roman society)

Inherited fromLatingentēs.

gens f pl (plural only)(ORB, broad)

1. people

• gens in DicoFranPro:Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – ondicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• gens in Lo trèsor Arpitan – onarpitan.eu

From an earliergents, from the plural ofOld Frenchgent,genz, fromgentem, accusative ofgēns.

• IPA^(key):/ʒɑ̃/

• Audio(Paris):

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• (Canada)IPA^(key):/ʒã/
• (Haiti)IPA^(key):/ʒɑ̃s/
• (Louisiana)IPA^(key):/ʒɑ̃(s)/
• Rhymes:-ɑ̃
• Homophones:gent,gents,jan,jans,Jean

gens m pl (plural only)

1. set ofpeople

   Cesgens-là ont toujours été sympas avec moi.

   Thosepeople have always been kind to me.

   Je n’aime pas lesgens qui se prennent pour le nombril du monde.

   I don't likepeople who think the world revolves around them.

   (literally, “I don't likepeople who take themselves for the navel of the world.”)

   • 2018, Zaz,J'aime, j'aime:

     Qu’est-ce que t’aimes, qu’est-ce que t’aimes ? Je sais pas, moi, ça dépend. J’aime plutôt lesgens honnêtes.

     What do you like, what do you like? I don't know; it depends. I quite like honestpeople.

• Whengens is preceded by anattributive adjective which has a different feminine form, this adjective, along with any precedingdeterminer, is made feminine. However, adjectives after the noun remain masculine.

Toutes lesbonnes gensheureux

Tous ceshonnêtes gens

• gent

• peuple m

• “gens”, inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

gens

1. indefinitegenitivesingular ofgen

FromProto-Italic*gentis, fromProto-Indo-European*ǵénh₁tis,^[1] from root*ǵenh₁-(“to produce, to beget, to give birth”).^[2]

See alsogenerō,genus,gignō. Cognate withEnglishkind,Sanskritजाति(jāti),Ancient Greekγένος(génos) andAncient Greekγένεσις(génesis), whenceEnglishgenesis.

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key):/ˈɡens/,[ˈɡẽːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key):/ˈd͡ʒens/,[ˈd͡ʒɛns]

gēns f (genitivegentis);third declension

1. Romanclan (related by birth or marriage and sharing a common name and often united by certain religious rites)
2. stock,tribe
3. nation,country
   • 8CE,Ovid,Fasti1.599–600:

     Sī petat ā victīs, tot sūmat nōmina Caesar,
     quot numerōgentēs maximus orbis habet.

     Were Caesar to seek his names from the conquered,
     he would have to assume as many in number as the vast world containsnations.
     1851.The Fasti &c of Ovid. Translated byH. T. Riley. London:H. G. Bohn. pg. 38.

4. people,family

   Synonyms:tribus,prōlēs,prōgeniēs

5. the chiefgods
6. (biblical,Christianity,Judaism)heathen,pagan

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• “gens”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “gens”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "gens", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• gens inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894)Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
  • the territory of this race extends as far as the Rhine:haec gens pertinet usque ad Rhenum
    
  • to civilise men, a nation:homines, gentem a fera agrestique vita ad humanum cultum civilemque deducere (De Or. 1. 8. 33)
    
  • universal history:omnis memoria, omnis memoria aetatum, temporum, civitatum oromnium rerum, gentium, temporum, saeculorum memoria
    
  • to violate the law of nations:ius gentium violare
    
  • to completely annihilate a nation:gentem ad internecionem redigere oradducere (B. G. 2. 28)
    
• “gens”, inHarry Thurston Peck, editor (1898),Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• gens inRamminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed))Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “gens”, inWilliam Smith et al., editor (1890),A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

FromOld Frenchgens,gent, fromLatingēns, gentis.

gens m pl

1. (Guernsey, plural only)people

Borrowed fromLatingēns.Doublet ofgente.

gens f (invariable)

1. (Ancient Rome)gens(in Ancient Rome, a group of people descending from a common ancestor)

   Synonym:gente

gens f (pluralgenss)

1. (Ancient Rome)gens

gens

1. indefinitegenitivesingular ofgen