Pop Culture dictionary
baby boomers
or boomers [bey-bee boom-erz]
What does baby boomers mean?
The baby boomers are the generation born between the early 1940s to the early 1960s, especially in the US.
Related words:
- Millennials
- Generation X
- Generation Z
- Silent Generation
Where does baby boomers come from?
The term baby boomer, sometimes shortened just to boomer, refers to an individual, usually of American birth, who belongs to the generation born from the 1940s through the early 1960s—a time when there was a boom in births after World War II.
Though their parents, sometimes called the Silent Generation, survived both the Great Depression and Second World War, the baby boomers came of age in a period of great economic prosperity and privilege.
Cheezburger
During and after World War II, there was a noticeable rise in the number of new babies being born in the US, described as a baby boom in Life magazine. A 1963 edition of The Salt Lake Tribune used baby-boomers when discussing their extensive television viewing. (Baby boomers were killing radio, it seems.) A 1970 article in The Washington Post notably wrote of the “baby boomers of the Eisenhower decade.”
Examples of baby boomers
Who uses baby boomers?
While the term originally refers to the US-born, baby boomer has spread to other, usually English-speaking populations born at the same time around the globe.
Use of baby boomer can be neutral.
But, it is very often used critically.
Millenials: Lazy, entitled, always whining, addicted to social media.
Baby Boomers: Repeatedly voted for and financially supported war criminals.
— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) May 9, 2018
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of baby boomers like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of baby boomers that will help our users expand their word mastery.