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Generalize   /dʒˈɛnərəlˌaɪz/   Listen
verb
generalize  v. t.  (past & past part. generalized; pres. part. generalizing)  (Also spelled generalise)  
1.
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."
2.
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."
3.
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."
4.
To speak in generalities; to talk in abstract terms.
Synonyms: generalise, speak generally.



Generalize  v. i.  To form into a genus; to view objects in their relations to a genus or class; to take general or comprehensive views.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Generalize" Quotes from Famous Books



... however, solely to draw attention to the importance and greatness of the physical history of the universe, for in the present day these are too well understood to be contested, but likewise to prove how, without detriment to the stability of special studies, we may be enabled to generalize our ideas by concentrating them in one common focus, and thus arrive at a point of view from which all the organisms and forces of nature may be seen as one living active whole, animated by one sole impulse. "Nature," as Schelling remarks ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt

... reflect, analyze, and generalize, has an advantage over uncultured minds even of double experience. Poor as your cook is, she now knows more of her business than you do. After a very brief period of attention and experiment, you will not only know more than she does, but ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

... movement a steadily progressive triumph, which, at its climax, is utterly broken and shattered. In doing this he has tried to epitomize the whole work. While in the other movements he aimed at expressing tragic details, in the last he has tried to generalize; thinking that the most poignant tragedy is that of catastrophe in the ...
— Contemporary American Composers • Rupert Hughes

... these were excrescences or city fashions; that one must not generalize. These are empty phrases. To understand the spirit of a society it is not hermits that one must study. And, moreover, let any one ask himself whether this society was really based on the idea of solidarity and human friendliness or ...
— The New Society • Walther Rathenau

... B. is the end to A.; but it is itself a mean to C., and in like manner C. is a mean to D., and so on. Thus words are the means by which we reduce appearances, or things presented through the senses, to their several kinds, or 'genera'; that is, we generalize, and thus think and judge. Hence the understanding, considered specially as an intellective power, is the source and faculty of words;—and on this account the understanding is justly defined, both by Archbishop Leighton, and by Immanuel Kant, the faculty that judges ...
— Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge


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