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

That was compared to 51 percent of male millennials, 46 percent of Gen X and 44 percent for boomers. —Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 July 2025

About 30% of Gen Z seek guidance from their manager, compared to 14% of Gen X and 10% of boomers. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 24 July 2025

But Gen X has lost too many of its childhood musical heroes far too young, Prince and Tom Petty and Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson and George Michael. —Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 23 July 2025

In China, most of the wealth sits with millennials and Gen X, Wouters said, referring to those broadly between the ages of 30 and 60. —Evelyn Cheng,victoria Yeo, CNBC, 22 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1992, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Gen X

• becks
• checks
• czechs
• decks
• dex
• ex
• flecks
• flex
• hex
• lex
• necks
• pecks