Zeitgeist is originally a German expression, which means "the spirit (Geist) of the time (Zeit)". It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era.

It is a term that refers to the ethos of a cohort of people, that spans one or more subsequent generations, who despite their diverse age and socio-economic background experience a certain worldview, which is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural progression. Zeitgeist is the experience of a dominant cultural climate that defines, particularly in Hegelian thinking, an era in the dialectical progression of a people or the world at large.

See also:

• List of English words of German origin.
• Generation X

Apart from its basic meaning it may be referring to one of the following:

• ZeitGeist , a German magazine
• Zeitgeist Films Ltd., an American independent film company
• The Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Zeitgeist , a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling (ISBN 0553576410).
• The Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center a non-profit organization in New Orleans, Louisiana
• The Adventures of Phoebe Zeitgeist , a comic strip serial (or its title heroine) by Michael O'Donoghue and Frank Springer that first appeared in The Evergreen Review
• Zeitgeist Games , American maker of role playing games
• A Google report of the fastest changing and most popular online searches