Caste vs. Class

Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies.

A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly associate with each other.

(zoology) A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.

One of the hereditary classes into which the Hindu are divided according to the laws of Brahmanism.

A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly hold intercourse among themselves.

Example: ‘The tinkers then formed an hereditary caste.’;

social status or position conferred by a system based on class;

Example: ‘lose caste by doing work beneath one's station’;

(Hinduism) a hereditary social class among Hindus; stratified according to ritual purity

a social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank or profession or wealth

Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. Its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the division of India's Hindu society into rigid social groups, with roots in India's ancient history and persisting to the present time.

(countable) A group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.

Example: ‘The new Ford Fiesta is set to be best in the 'small family' class.’; ‘That is one class-A heifer you got there, sonny.’; ‘Often used to imply membership of a large class.’; ‘This word has a whole class of metaphoric extensions.’;

A social grouping, based on job, wealth, etc. In Britain, society is commonly split into three main classes; upper class, middle class and working class.

(uncountable) The division of society into classes.

Example: ‘Jane Austen's works deal with class in 18th-century England.’;

(uncountable) Admirable behavior; elegance.

Example: ‘Apologizing for losing your temper, even though you were badly provoked, showed real class.’;

A group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher.

Example: ‘The class was noisy, but the teacher was able to get their attention with a story.’;

A series of lessons covering a single subject.

Example: ‘I took the cooking class for enjoyment, but I also learned a lot.’;

(countable) A group of students who commenced or completed their education during a particular year. A school class.

Example: ‘The class of 1982 was particularly noteworthy.’;

(countable) A category of seats in an airplane, train or other means of mass transportation.

Example: ‘I used to fly business class, but now my company can only afford economy.’;

A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.

Example: ‘Magnolias belong to the class Magnoliopsida.’;

Best of its kind.

Example: ‘It is the class of Italian bottled waters.’;

(statistics) A grouping of data values in an interval, often used for computation of a frequency distribution.

(set theory) A collection of sets definable by a shared property.

Example: ‘The class of all sets is not a set.’; ‘Every set is a class, but classes are not generally sets. A class that is not a set is called a proper class.’;

(military) A group of people subject to be conscripted in the same military draft, or more narrowly those persons actually conscripted in a particular draft.

A set of objects having the same behavior (but typically differing in state), or a template defining such a set.

Example: ‘an abstract base class’;

One of the sections into which a Methodist church or congregation is divided, supervised by a class leader.

(transitive) To assign to a class; to classify.

Example: ‘I would class this with most of the other mediocre works of the period.’;

(intransitive) To be grouped or classed.

(transitive) To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.

great; fabulous

A group of individuals ranked together as possessing common characteristics; as, the different classes of society; the educated class; the lower classes.

A number of students in a school or college, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies.

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, genera, etc.

A set; a kind or description, species or variety.

Example: ‘She had lost one class energies.’;

One of the sections into which a church or congregation is divided, and which is under the supervision of a class leader.

One session of formal instruction in which one or more teachers instruct a group on some subject. The class may be one of a course of classes, or a single special session.

A high degree of elegance, in dress or behavior; the quality of bearing oneself with dignity, grace, and social adeptness.

To arrange in classes; to classify or refer to some class; as, to class words or passages.

To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.

To be grouped or classed.

Example: ‘The genus or family under which it classes.’;

exhibiting refinement and high character; as, a class act. Opposite of low-class

people having the same social or economic status;

Example: ‘the working class’; ‘an emerging professional class’;

a body of students who are taught together;

Example: ‘early morning classes are always sleepy’;

education imparted in a series of lessons or class meetings;

Example: ‘he took a course in basket weaving’; ‘flirting is not unknown in college classes’;

a collection of things sharing a common attribute;

Example: ‘there are two classes of detergents’;

a body of students who graduate together;

Example: ‘the class of '97’; ‘she was in my year at Hoehandle High’;

a league ranked by quality;

Example: ‘he played baseball in class D for two years’; ‘Princeton is in the NCAA Division 1-AA’;

elegance in dress or behavior;

Example: ‘she has a lot of class’;

(biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders

arrange or order by classes or categories;

Example: ‘How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?’;