Definition

1. Verb (Intransitive):

   • To form a broad conclusion or principle from specific instances or limited evidence: To move from particular facts or observations to a wider, more universal statement or theory.
   • To speak or write using broad, non-specific statements: To discuss topics without providing specific details or examples, often resulting in vague or oversimplified ideas.
   • (Medical) To spread or become distributed throughout a system, especially the body: For a disease, infection, or condition to extend from a local or specific area to affect a wider or the entire system.

2. Verb (Transitive):

   • To make a broad or general statement about something: To express an idea in a way that applies to many cases rather than a specific one.
   • To make something more widely known, applicable, or popular: To bring a specific idea, technique, or product into common use or understanding.

Usage Examples

• Verb (Intransitive):

  • It is dangerous to generalise from just a few examples. (Forming a broad conclusion from limited data can be misleading.)
  • The lecturer tended to generalise, so it was hard to grasp the precise details. (The speaker used overly broad statements.)
  • Without treatment, the infection may generalise and become life-threatening. (The infection may spread throughout the body.)

• Verb (Transitive):

  • You cannot generalise the habits of one group to an entire population. (You cannot apply the traits of a small sample to everyone.)
  • Their research helped to generalise the use of solar power in rural communities. (Their work helped make solar power more common in those areas.)

Advanced Usage

• "To generalise wildly/broadly": To make sweeping, often unsupported, general statements.
  • He tends to generalise wildly about political trends based on a single news article.
• "Generalising from the particular to the universal": A formal description of the logical process of induction.
  • The scientific method often involves generalising from the particular to the universal.

Variants and Related Words

• Generalisation (Noun): The act or result of forming a general idea or statement.
  • His argument was based on a hasty generalisation.
• Generalised (Adjective): Widespread; not specific or localized.
  • The patient presented with generalised pain.
• General (Adjective): Widespread, common, or not specific. (This is the root adjective from which the verb is derived).

Synonyms

• Extrapolate: To infer or estimate by extending known information.
• Universalise: To make something universal in application.
• Popularise: To make something liked by many people; a specific sense of 'generalise'.
• Vulgarise: To make something common or less refined; a specific, often pejorative, sense of 'generalise'.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions

(Note: 'Generalise' is not typically used with particles to form standard phrasal verbs. Its meaning is modified by prepositions like 'from', 'about', or 'to'.) - Generalise about: To make broad statements concerning a topic. - It is unwise to generalise about a culture you have not studied deeply. - Generalise from: To derive a broad principle from specific cases. - We can generalise from these experiments that the compound is safe. - Generalise to: To apply a conclusion to a broader group or situation. - These findings cannot be generalised to the entire adult population.

Related Idioms

• "To tar everyone with the same brush": This idiom is a critical synonym for the negative act of generalising unfairly about a group.
  • You can't blame all managers for one person's mistake; don't tar everyone with the same brush.
• "To paint with a broad brush": To describe something in a general way, ignoring details.
  • The report painted with a broad brush, missing important nuances in the data.

Verb

1. become systemic and spread throughout the body
   • this kind of infection generalizes throughout the immune system
2. cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use
   • They popularized coffee in Washington State
   • Relativity Theory was vulgarized by these authors
3. draw from specific cases for more general cases
4. speak or write in generalities