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

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., is the third member of Gen X to hold the gavel, following fellow Republicans and former Speakers Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Kevin McCarthy of California. —Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY, 11 Feb. 2025

This belief was endorsed most strongly by older generations, like boomers and Gen X, but even Gen Z somewhat agreed with the idea of generational decline. —Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 7 Feb. 2025

Though Gen X has trouble accepting change and transition, Gen Z is also firmly out of touch with some of life’s realities simply due to their lack of experience. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 6 Feb. 2025

Instead, after the pilot, the comedy falls into a structure in which the Gen Z characters are being morons in their office environment, and the Gen X characters are entirely separately being morons while trying to regain employment. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1992, in the meaning defined above