Adjacent Words

Generality definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GENERAL'ITY, n.
1. The state of being general; the quality of including species or particulars.
2. The main body; the bulk; the greatest part; as the generality of a nation or of mankind.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an idea or conclusion having general application; "he spoke in broad generalities" [syn: generalization, generalisation, generality]
2: the quality of being general or widespread or having general applicability [ant: particularity, specialness]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Date: 15th century 1. the quality or state of being general 2. a. generalization 2 b. a vague or inadequate statement 3. the greatest part ; bulk <the generality of the population>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a statement or principle etc. having general validity or force. 2 applicability to a whole class of instances. 3 vagueness; lack of detail. 4 the state of being general. 5 (foll. by of) the main body or majority. Etymology: F généralité f. LL generalitas -tatis (as GENERAL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Generality Gen`er*al"i*ty, n.; pl. Generalities. [L. generalitas: cf. F. g['e]n['e]ralit['e]. Cf. Generalty.] 1. The state of being general; the quality of including species or particulars. --Hooker. 2. That which is general; that which lacks specificalness, practicalness, or application; a general or vague statement or phrase. Let us descend from generalities to particulars. --Landor. The glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence. --R. Choate. 3. The main body; the bulk; the greatest part; as, the generality of a nation, or of mankind.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(generalities) 1. A generality is a general statement that covers a range of things, rather than being concerned with specific instances. (FORMAL) I'll start with some generalities and then examine a few specific examples... He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities. N-COUNT 2. The generality of a statement or description is the fact that it is a general one, rather than a specific, detailed one. That there are problems with this kind of definition is hardly surprising, given its level of generality.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Universality, generic extent. 2. Bulk, mass, greater part, main body, common run.

Moby Thesaurus

Everyman, Public, abstract, abstraction, abstractions, amorphousness, average, average man, averageness, balance, best part, better part, blobbiness, blurriness, body, broadness, bulk, center, common man, common run, commonness, commonplaceness, currency, disorder, essence, everyman, everywoman, fogginess, fuzziness, generalization, girl next door, gist, golden mean, gravamen, happy medium, haziness, homme moyen sensuel, ill-definedness, imprecision, inaccuracy, inchoateness, incoherence, indecisiveness, indefinableness, indefiniteness, indeterminateness, indistinctness, inexactness, juste-milieu, laws, laxity, looseness, main body, major part, majority, mass, mean, meat, median, mediocrity, medium, middle, middle course, middle ground, middle point, middle position, middle state, middle-of-the-road, midpoint, mistiness, most, norm, normal, obscuration, obscurity, ordinariness, ordinary Joe, ordinary run, par, plurality, prevalence, principles, ruck, rule, run, shapelessness, substance, sweeping statement, sweepingness, thrust, unclearness, universality, usualness, vague notion, vagueness, via media