Gen Alpha
noun
The generation of people born (approximately) between 2010 and 2025
What does Gen Alpha mean?
Gen Alpha (also known as Generation Alpha) is the group of people born between 2010 and 2025, although not everyone agrees on the start and end dates of this generation. Capitalizing both words is more common, but it is not unusual to find one or both written in lowercase.
Examples of Gen Alpha
I gave birth to three successful Gen X daughters who have produced their own generation: I have three Gen Z granddaughters and one Gen Alpha granddaughter.
—Suzanne Davis, The Australian, 17 Nov. 2011
Alex Beckett, a senior research director at the market research company Mintel, adds that young consumers are prompting their parents to spend. “Thanks to their exposure to social media, YouTube and Netflix, gen Alphas are exposed to trends and dopamine-raising crazes intended for older adults, and they’re emulating them—essentially becoming hyper-informed consumers at an early age.”
—Enter Gen Alpha, whose eyes are already racing across screens. “I think they’re going to be trend freaks,” Ms. Lewis said.
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Where does Gen Alpha come from?
Gen Alpha is a shortening of Generation Alpha, a term widely viewed as having been created in 2008 by Mark McCrindle, an Australian social researcher. The first generation named with a Greek letter (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet), Gen Alpha comes directly after a series of generations named with the final letters of the Latin alphabet: Generation X, Generation Y (also known as Millennials), and Generation Z (also known as Zoomers).
How is Gen Alpha used?
Gen Alpha is somewhat more informal than Generation Alpha (shortened words often are more informal than the longer words they come from). Both are used in general and specialized writing, and neither is considered vulgar or slang.
