Gen X

noun

ˈjen-ˈeks 

: generation x

Gen X managed to stretch adolescence beyond all previous limits: Its members started becoming adults earlier and finished becoming adults later.

—Jean M. Twenge

—often used before another noun

a Gen X celebrity

—often hyphenated in such use

… 'The Blair Witch Project,' a stealth blockbuster with clever Internet marketing and so much Gen-X appeal that it's spooking Hollywood.

—Newsweek

Gen Xer

ˈjen-ˈek-sər 

noun

or Gen-Xer

plural Gen Xers or Gen-Xers

… only about 56 percent of high-school seniors in 2015 went out on dates; for Boomers and Gen Xers, the number was about 85 percent.

—Jean M. Twenge

Like many Gen-Xers, I remember childhood as an uncomplicated time when the only thing you had to worry about was being home by dark.

—Bethany Young Hardy

Examples of Gen X in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Among Millennials, the rate was 22%, whereas Gen Z (15%) and Gen X (11%) fell significantly behind (though, the majority of Gen Z is below the legal drinking age). —Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAY, 3 Jan. 2025

Young people today are no less obsessed with climate disasters than Gen X was with nuclear war. —Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic, 31 Dec. 2024

By the end of 1992, Time magazine was writing in Important Ways about Gen X, Nirvana had caused a kind of moral panic at the disco, Sub Pop had pranked the New York Times about grunge slang, and suddenly everybody knew about this exciting and possibly worrying new phenomenon. —Jim Greer, SPIN, 24 Dec. 2024

Meanwhile, Gen X and baby boomers are more likely to stick with gift cards and physical store shopping. —Amanda Castro, Newsweek, 24 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1992, in the meaning defined above