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Original · left

Class (school or society)

A group of students gathered for academic instruction, or a socioeconomic tier in human society.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Class (programming)

An extensible code blueprint defining the default properties, state fields, and executable methods for instantiated objects.

First in use: c. 1967

Class / Class (school or society) / Class (programming)

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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Homeroom vs. object-oriented blueprints.

Which meaning of Class is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Class (school or society) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Class (programming) arrived in 1967. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Class (school or society)Class (programming)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Class (school or society)

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Duplicate · c. 1967

Class (programming)

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More duplicated terms

Programming & software