general-purpose

[jen-er-uhl-pur-puhs]

adjective

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

   a good general-purpose dictionary.

general-purpose

adjective

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of general-purpose¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

The ultimate goal of a general-purpose robot, one that can package goods, do household chores and assist in surgical procedures, is still years away.

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Congress gave him that flexibility under export-control laws, in part because as adversaries develop competitive substitutes for general-purpose technologies, export controls lose much of their value, so they must be continuously calibrated.

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The general-purpose virtual machines are designed to run common workloads such as web servers and databases.

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At a conference in May, Smith dubbed it the “next great general-purpose technology,” on par with electricity.

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The luxury jeweller De Beers has a subsidiary company called Element 6, which claims to have launched the world's first general-purpose quantum-grade diamond in 2020.

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