Class, n.
Etymology: [F. classe, fr. L. classis class, collection, fleet; akin to Gr. 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, gemera, etc.
4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety. She had lost one class energies. Macaulay.
2 more senses
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.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Class, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Classed; p. pr. & vb. n. Classing.]
1. To arrange in classes; to classify or refer to some class; as, to class words or passages.
Note: In scientific arrangement, to classify is used instead of to class. Dana.
2. To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
Class, v. i.
To grouped or classed. The genus or famiky under which it classes. Tatham.
Shades of meaning
A class is a number or body of persons or objects having common pursuits, purposes, attributes, or characteristics. A caste is hereditary; a class may be independent of lineage or descent; membership in a caste is supposed to be for life; membership in a class may be very transient; a religious and ceremonial sacredness attaches to the caste, as not to the class. The rich and the poor form separate classes; yet individuals are constantly passing from each to the other; the classes in a college remain the same, but their membership changes every year. We speak of rank among hereditary nobility or military officers; of various orders of the priesthood; by accommodation, we may refer in a general way to the higher ranks, the lower orders of any society. Grade implies some regular scale of valuation, and some inherent qualities for which a person or thing is placed higher or lower in the scale; as, the coarser and finer grades of wool; a man of an inferior grade. A coterie is a small company of persons of similar tastes, who meet frequently in an informal way, rather for social enjoyment than for any serious purpose. Clique has always an unfavorable meaning. A clique is always fractional, implying some greater gathering of which it is a part; the association breaks up into cliques. Persons unite in a coterie through simple liking for one another; they withdraw into a clique largely through aversion to outsiders. A set, while exclusive, is more extensive than a clique, and chiefly of persons who are united by common social station, etc. Circle is similar in meaning to set, but of wider application; we speak of scientific and religious as well as of social circles.
Prepositions
A class of merchants; the senior class at (sometimes of) Harvard; the classes in college.