Class (klȧs), n. [F. classe, fr. L. classis class, collection, fleet; akin to Gr. κλη̑σισ a calling, καλει̑ν to call, E. 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, genera, etc.
4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety.
She had lost one class energies.
Macaulay.
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.