Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Generalize

Gen′er·al·ize (jĕn′ẽr·al·īz), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Generalized; p. pr. & vb. n. Generalizing.] [Cf. F. généraliser.]

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. W. Nicholson.

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. Sir W. Hamilton.

3. To derive or deduce (a general conception, or a general principle) from particulars.

A mere conclusion generalized from a great multitude of facts. Coleridge.

Gen′er·al·ize, v. i. To form into a genus; to view objects in their relations to a genus or class; to take general or comprehensive views.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.