GENERALISE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Generalise

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verb

generalize v. t. (past & past part. generalized; pres. part. generalizing) (Also spelled generalise)

To bring under a genus or under genera; to view in relation to a genus or to genera. "Copernicus generalized the celestial motions by merely referring them to the moon's motion. Newton generalized them still more by referring this last to the motion of a stone through the air."

To apply to other genera or classes; to use with a more extensive application; to extend so as to include all special cases; to make universal in application, as a formula or rule. "When a fact is generalized, our discontent is quited, and we consider the generality itself as tantamount to an explanation."

To derive or deduce (a general conception, or a general principle) from particulars.

Synonyms: generalize, extrapolate, infer. "A mere conclusion generalized from a great multitude of facts."

To speak in generalities; to talk in abstract terms.

Synonyms: generalise, speak generally.

generalise v. Same as generalize.

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Etymology of 'Generalise'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Generalise" Quotes from Famous Books

... system, no errors are so difficult to root out as those which the understanding has pledged its credit to uphold. In this Class are contained censors, who, if they be pleased with what is good, are pleased with it only by imperfect glimpses, and upon false principles; who, should they generalise rightly, to a certain point, are sure to suffer for it in the end; who, if they stumble upon a sound rule, are fettered by misapplying it, or by straining it too far; being incapable of perceiving when it ought to yield ...

— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

... grant that if a writer was sufficiently at once incompetent and obsequious Mr. Darwin was "ever ready," &c. So the Emperors of Austria wash a few poor people's feet on some one of the festivals of the Church, but it would not be safe to generalise from this yearly ceremony, and conclude that the Emperors of Austria are in the habit of washing poor people's feet. I can understand Mr. Darwin's not having taken any public notice, for example, of "Life and Habit," for though I did not attack him in force ...

— Luck or Cunning? • Samuel Butler

... ends and that of the other begins, and add to it a wide knowledge of large affairs, which no special man can have, and which is only gained by diversified action. But this utility of leading minds used to generalise, and acting upon various materials, is entirely dependent upon their position. They must not be at the bottom—they must not even be half way up—they must be at the top. A merchant's clerk would be a child at a bank counter; but the merchant himself could, very ...

— The English Constitution • Walter Bagehot

... others, and a great personal charm of manner, were common to the two. Charles Darwin possessed, in the highest degree, that "vividness of imagination" of which he speaks as strongly characteristic of Erasmus, and as leading "to his overpowering tendency to theorise and generalise." This tendency, in the case of Charles Darwin, was fully kept in check by the determination to test his theories to the utmost. Erasmus had a strong love of all kinds of mechanism, for which Charles Darwin had no taste. Neither had Charles ...

— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin