different between class vs league

English

Etymology

From Middle French classe, from Latin classis (“a class or division of the people, assembly of people, the whole body of citizens called to arms, the army, the fleet, later a class or division in general”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh?- (“to call, shout”). Doublet of classis.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, Ireland, New England) enPR: kläs, IPA^(key): /kl??s/
• (Northern England, Scotland) enPR: kl?s, IPA^(key): /klæs/, /klas/
• (General American, NYC) enPR: kl?s, IPA^(key): /klæs/, /kle?s/
• Rhymes: -??s, -æs
• Hyphenation: class

Noun

class (countable and uncountable, plural classes)

1. (countable) A group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.
3. (sociology, countable) 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.
4. (uncountable) The division of society into classes.

5. (uncountable) Admirable behavior; elegance.

7. (education, countable and uncountable) A group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher.

8. A series of lessons covering a single subject.

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

10. (countable) A category of seats in an airplane, train or other means of mass transportation.
12. (taxonomy, countable) A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.

13. Best of its kind.
14. (statistics) A grouping of data values in an interval, often used for computation of a frequency distribution.
16. (set theory) A collection of sets definable by a shared property.
    • 1973, Abraham Fraenkel, Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, Azriel Lévy, Foundations of Set Theory, Elsevier, 2nd Edition, page 119,

      In the present section we shall discuss the various systems of set theory which admit, beside sets, also classes. Classes are like sets, except that they can be very comprehensive; an extreme example of a class is the class which contains all sets. […] The main point which will, in our opinion, emerge from this analysis is that set theory with classes and set theory with sets only are not two separate theories; they are, essentially, different formulations of the same underlying theory.

17. (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.
19. (object-oriented programming, countable) A set of objects having the same behavior (but typically differing in state), or a template defining such a set.

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

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:class

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (kurasu)

Translations

Verb

class (third-person singular simple present classes, present participle classing, simple past and past participle classed)

1. (transitive) To assign to a class; to classify.
2. (intransitive) To be grouped or classed.
   • 1790, Edward Tatham, The Chart and Scale of Truth

     the genus or family under which it classes

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

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

class (not comparable)

1. (Ireland, Britain, slang) great; fabulous
   • 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics

     To talented authors Tim Ash and Brian Reich for introducing me to John Wiley & Sons—a truly class outfit.

Related terms

References

• class in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• class in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "class" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 60.
• class at OneLook Dictionary Search
• class in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.

Further reading

• Von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Old Irish

Verb

·class

1. passive singular preterite conjunct of claidid

Mutation

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li??/
• Rhymes: -i??

Etymology 1

From Middle English liege, ligg, lige (“a pact between governments, an agreement, alliance”), from Middle French ligue, from Italian lega, from the verb legare, from Latin lig? (“I tie”).

Noun

league (plural leagues)

1. A group or association of cooperating members.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Passion of Dido for Aeneas

     And let there be / 'Twixt us and them no league, nor amity.

2. (sports) An organization of sports teams which play against one another for a championship.

3. (informal, rugby) Ellipsis of rugby league

4. (often in the negative) A class or type of people or things that are evenly matched or on the same level.

5. A prefecture-level administrative unit in Inner Mongolia (Chinese: ?).

Derived terms

Related terms

• ally
• alliance

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (r?gu)
• ? Korean: ?? (rigeu)

Translations

Verb

league (third-person singular simple present leagues, present participle leaguing, simple past and past participle leagued)

1. To form an association; to unite in a league or confederacy; to combine for mutual support.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English lege (“league”), from Late Latin leuca, leuga (“the Gaulish mile”), from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *lewg? (compare Middle Breton leau, Welsh lew, Breton lev / leo (“league”)).

Noun

league (plural leagues)

1. (measurement) The distance that a person can walk in one hour, commonly taken to be approximately three English miles (about five kilometers).
   • 1751-1753, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), p. 47

     Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered.
2. A stone erected near a public road to mark the distance of a league.

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “league”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• Middle English Dictionary, lege