generality

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: gen=er=al=i=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

generality, n. [L. generalitas: cf. F. généralité. Cf. Generalty.].

•  The state of being general; the quality of including species or particulars.  Hooker.  [1913 Webster]
•  That which is general; that which lacks specificalness, practicalness, or application; a general or vague statement or phrase.  [1913 Webster]

  "Let us descend from generalities to particulars."  [1913 Webster]

  "The glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence."  [1913 Webster]
•  The main body; the bulk; the greatest part; as, the generality of a nation, or of mankind.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

generality, 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 g{eacute}n{eacute}ralit{eacute} f. LL generalitas -tatis (as GENERAL)

THESAURUS

generality

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

ROGET THESAURUS

generality

Mean

N mean, average, median, mode, balance, medium, mediocrity, generality, golden mean middle, compromise, middle course, middle state, neutrality, mediocrity, least common denominator, mean, intermediate, middle, average, neutral, mediocre, middle-class, commonplace, on an average, in the long run, taking one with another, taking all things together, taking it for all in all, communibus annis, in round numbers, medium tenuere beati.

Generality

N generality, generalization, universality, catholicity, catholicism, miscellany, miscellaneousness, dragnet, common run, worldwideness, everyone, everybody, all hands, all the world and his wife, anybody, N or M, all sorts, prevalence, run, general, generic, collective, broad, comprehensive, sweeping, encyclopedical, widespread, universal, catholic, catholical, common, worldwide, ecumenical, oecumenical, transcendental, prevalent, prevailing, rife, epidemic, besetting, all over, covered with, Pan-American, Anglican, Pan-Hellenic, Pan-Germanic, slavic, panharmonic, every, all, unspecified, impersonal, customary, whatever, whatsoever, to a man, one and all, generally, always, for better for worse, in general, generally speaking, speaking generally, for the most part, in the long run.