Class \Class\ (kl[.a]s), n. [F. classe, fr. L. classis class,
collection, fleet; akin to Gr. klh^sis a calling, kalei^n to
call, E. claim, haul.]
1. A group of individuals ranked together as possessing
common characteristics; as, the different classes of
society; the educated class; the lower classes.
2. A number of students in a school or college, of the same
standing, or pursuing the same studies.
3. A comprehensive division of animate or inanimate objects,
grouped together on account of their common
characteristics, in any classification in natural science,
and subdivided into orders, families, tribes, genera, etc.
4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety.
She had lost one class energies. --Macaulay.
5. (Methodist Church) One of the sections into which a church
or congregation is divided, and which is under the
supervision of a class leader.
Class of a curve (Math.), the kind of a curve as expressed
by the number of tangents that can be drawn from any point
to the curve. A circle is of the second class.
Class meeting (Methodist Church), a meeting of a class
under the charge of a class leader, for counsel and
relegious instruction.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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