generalize

American  

[jen-er-uh-lahyz] / ˈdʒɛn ər əˌlaɪz /

especially British, generalise

verb (used with object)

generalized, generalizing

1. to infer (a general principle, trend, etc.) from particular facts, statistics, or the like.

2. to infer or form (a general principle, opinion, conclusion, etc.) from only a few facts, examples, or the like.

3. to give a general rather than a specific or special character or form to.

4. to make general; bring into general use or knowledge.

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verb (used without object)

generalized, generalizing

1. to form general principles, opinions, etc.

2. to deal, think, or speak in generalities.

3. to make general inferences.

generalize British  

/ ˈdʒɛnrəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to form (general principles or conclusions) from (detailed facts, experience, etc); infer

2. (intr) to think or speak in generalities, esp in a prejudiced way

3. (tr; usually passive) to cause to become widely used or known

4. (intr)

   1. to spread throughout the body

   2. to change from a localized infection or condition to a systemic one

      generalized infection

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Other Word Forms

• generalizable adjective
• generalizer noun
• nongeneralized adjective
• ungeneralized adjective
• ungeneralizing adjective

Etymology

Origin of generalize

First recorded in 1745–55; general + -ize

Explanation

To generalize is to use specific examples to make broader points. Generalizing makes large points, though they aren't always necessarily true. When someone says "in general" they're talking about what things are like in the big picture or overall. Similarly, generalizing takes small examples and uses them to make bigger points. Saying that all teens are selfish because you know a few selfish teens is generalizing. Saying all adults are uptight is an example of generalizing. Unfortunately, generalizing can be dangerous. Stereotyping is a form of generalizing. Sometimes it’s better to stick to specific examples and to avoid generalizing.

Example Sentences

Mormann adds: "The ability of these neuronal groups to link spontaneously allows us to generalize information while preserving the specific details of individual events."

From Science Daily • Mar. 24, 2026

“These specialized architectures can be excellent in narrow slices of inference, but they don’t generalize well to the kind of workloads the frontier is converging on.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

AI models may perform well on the data they’re trained on, but “really the proof of the value of it is, does it generalize to an external population?” he noted.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 11, 2025

And economics teaches us not to generalize data trends when the “rules of the game” change.

From Barron's • Oct. 22, 2025

Now we can generalize the principle to sets of related concepts, that is, to themes.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker