general-purpose

American  

[jen-er-uhl-pur-puhs] / ˈdʒɛn ər əlˈpɜr pəs /

adjective

1. useful in many ways; not limited in use or function.

   a good general-purpose dictionary.

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general-purpose British  

adjective

1. having a range of uses or applications; not restricted to one function

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Etymology

Origin of general-purpose

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

But advances in batteries, motors and artificial intelligence have spawned a new generation: general-purpose robots that can walk around a plant and perform multiple jobs.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 15, 2026

In December, the Silicon Valley giant bought another AI firm called Manus, a Chinese-founded company that builds general-purpose bots.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2026

If human intelligence depends on system-level organization rather than a single general-purpose mechanism, then building artificial general intelligence may require more than simply scaling up specialized tools.

From Science Daily • Mar. 3, 2026

“Our differentiation is clear. We’re using AI to power visual search, discovery, and shopping, not general-purpose text-based search,” he said.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 13, 2026

By 1991, Unix had become the most widely used multiuser general-purpose operating system in the world.

From The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0, 24 Jul 1996 by Raymond, Eric S.