Adjacent Words

Generalization definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GENERALIZA'TION, n. The act of extending from particulars to generals; the act of making general.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: reasoning from detailed facts to general principles [syn: generalization, generalisation, induction, inductive reasoning]
2: an idea or conclusion having general application; "he spoke in broad generalities" [syn: generalization, generalisation, generality]
3: the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances [syn: abstraction, generalization, generalisation]
4: (psychology) transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus [syn: generalization, generalisation, stimulus generalization, stimulus generalisation]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1761 1. the act or process of generalizing 2. a general statement, law, principle, or proposition 3. the act or process whereby a learned response is made to a stimulus similar to but not identical with the conditioned stimulus

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (also -isation) 1 a general notion or proposition obtained by inference from (esp. limited or inadequate) particular cases. 2 the act or an instance of generalizing. Etymology: F généralisation (as GENERALIZE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Generalization Gen`er*al*i*za"tion, n. [Cf. F. g['e]n['e]ralisation.] 1. The act or process of generalizing; the act of bringing individuals or particulars under a genus or class; deduction of a general principle from particulars. Generalization is only the apprehension of the one in the many. --Sir W. Hamilton. 2. A general inference.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(generalizations) Note: in BRIT, also use 'generalisation' A generalization is a statement that seems to be true in most situations or for most people, but that may not be completely true in all cases. He is making sweeping generalisations to get his point across... The evaluation of conduct involves some amount of generalization. N-VAR

Moby Thesaurus

Baconian method, a fortiori reasoning, a posteriori reasoning, a priori reasoning, abstraction, analysis, bromide, catholicity, cliche, commonplace, cosmopolitanism, deduction, deductive reasoning, ecumenicalism, ecumenicity, epagoge, general idea, generality, generalized proposition, glittering generality, globalism, globality, hackneyed expression, hypothesis and verification, inclusiveness, induction, inductive reasoning, inference, internationalism, lieu commun, locus communis, particularization, philosophical induction, platitude, sweeping statement, syllogism, syllogistic reasoning, synthesis, tired cliche, truism, universality, worldwideness