generalissimo 
mander-in-chief; the supreme commander of 
all the forces of a country, of several armies, 
or of an army comprising several corps or divi- 
sions acting separately. 
Pompey had deserved the name of Great ; and Alexander 
with the same cognomination was ijeiieralistimo of Greece. 
Sir T. Brou-ne. 
generalistic (jen"e-ra-lis'tik), a. [< general, 
n., + -ixt-ir.] Of or pertaining to a general or 
to generalship. [Bare.] 
In proof of my genr.raliittic qualities, the rolling down of 
the water-jiir upon the heads of the Maghribi pilgrims in 
the "Golden Thread " was quoted, and all offered to fight 
for me a I'outrauce. R. F. Burton, El-Medinah, p. 272. 
generality (jeu-e-ral'i-ti), .; pi. generalities 
(-tiz). [< F. gencralitS' = Pr. gencralitat = Sp. 
2483 
3. In math., the process or result of modifying 
a proposition so as to obtain another having 
wider subject and predicate, but such that a 
limitation which, if applied to the new subject, 
gives the old subject, will reproduce the old 
predicate when applied to the new. For exam- 
ple, Format's theorem is that if p is any positive prime 
number and any number not divisible by p, then the di- 
vision of af~ l by p leaves 1 as the remainder. Ageneral- 
ization of this is, that if k is any positive integer, and $k 
the number of numbers as small as t and prime to it, anil 
a is any number relatively prime to k, then the division of 
a** by k leaves 1 as the remainder ; for when i is a prime 
number, <t>lt = k 1, and every number not divisible by 
t is prime to it. The language of mathematics differs 
from that of logic in that from every generalization of a 
proposition the proposition itself is immediately dedu- 
eible, which is not true in the logicians' sense of the word. 
The distinction between generalization and extension in 
mathematical language is not very clear, but the latter 
term applies primarily to a conception or function which 
has received a new and wider definition ; also, the modi- 
generality, = D. generaliteit = G. generaliteit, 
generality, body of generals, = Dan. Sw. gene- 
ralitet, war-office, < LL. generalita(t-)s, < L. ge- 
ni-ralis, general: see general.] 1. The state 
or condition of being general, in any of the 
senses of that word. 
It is noticeable that concepts on the same level of gene- 
niliti/ are framed with greater and greater facility. 
J. Sully, Outlines of Psychol., p. 384. 
2. Something that is general, as a general 
statement or principle ; especially, a saying of 
a general and vague nature. 
New Comedy came in place, more ciuill and pleasant a 
great deale and not touching any man by name, but in a 
certaine ijeneralitie glancing at euery abuse. 
I'uttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 26. 
Let us descend from generalities to particulars. 
Landor. 
The glittering and sounding generalities of natural right 
which make up the Declaration of Independence. 
R. Choate, quoted in Bartlett. 
3. The main body; the bulk; the greatest part ; 
specifically, the majority of people ; the multi- 
tude ; the commons. 
If this action had not beene thus crossed, the Generalitie 
of England had by this time beene wonne and encouraged 
therein. Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, II. 267. 
From whence it comes, that those tyrants who have the 
generality to friend, and the great ones their enemyes, 
are in the more safetie. 
E. Dacres, Machiavel on Livy, i. 40. 
Excellent persons who delighted in being retired, and 
abstracted from the pleasures that enchant the generality 
i if the world. Steele, Spectator, No. 264. 
4. Formerly, in France, a territorial division 
for the collection of taxes; a taxing district. 
The Huguenots established a system of generalities or 
districts. Encyc. Brit., XII. 338. 
generalizable (jen'e-ral-i-za-bl), a. [< gener- 
alize + -able."] Capable of being generalized, 
or brought under a general rule, or referred to 
a particular class or genus. Also spelled gen- 
cralisable. 
Extreme cases are, ipso nomine, not generalizable. 
Coleridge. 
generalization (jen"e-ral-i-za'shon), n. [= F. 
generalisation = Sp."gelteralizacion ; as getier- 
alize + -ation.] 1. The act of generalizing; 
recognition of a character as being common to 
two or more objects ; also, the process of form- 
ing a general notion. 
Although, for example, we had never seen but one rose, 
we might still have been able to attend to its colour, with- 
out thinking of its other properties. This has led some 
philosophers to suppose that another faculty besides ab- 
straction, to which they have given the name of generali- 
zation, is necessary to account for the formation of genera 
and species. D. Stewart, Elements, iv. 1. 
2. Induction ; an inference from the posses- 
sion of a character by each individual or by 
some of the individuals of a class to its posses- 
sion by all the individuals of that class ; the 
observation that the known individuals of a 
species, or the known species of a genus, have 
a character in common, and the consequent at- 
tribution of that character to the whole class ; 
also, a conclusion so reached. 
In our inquiries into the nature of the Inductive pro- 
cess, we must not confine our notice to such generaliza- 
tions from experience as profess to be universally true. 
J. S. Mill, Logic, III. xxiii. 1. 
When we have proved with respect to the circle that a 
straight line cannot meet it in more than two points, and 
when the same thing has been successively proved of the 
ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola, it may be laid 
down as a universal property of the sections of the cone. 
... It would be difficult to refuse to the proposition ar- 
rived at, the name of a generalization. . . . But there is 
not induction. J. S. Mill, Logic, III. ii. - 2. 
I am not going to attempt a definition of the Anglo- 
Saxon element in English literature, for pMtraftawmj 
are apt to be as dangerous as they are tempting. 
Lowell, Study Windows, p. 246. 
to make it apply to three is called an extension. 
Also spelled generalisation. 
generalize (jen'e-ral-iz), v. ; pret. and pp. gen- 
eralized, ppr. generalizing. [= D. generaliseren 
= G. generalisiren = Dan. generalises = Sw. 
yeneralisera, < F. generaliser = Sp. Pg. gene- 
ralizar = It. generalizzare; as general + -ize.] 
1. trans. 1. To render general; make more 
general ; bring under a general description or 
notion ; treat or apply generically. 
The mind makes its utmost endeavors to generalize its 
ideas. Bolingbroke, Human Knowledge, 5. 
We have already observed the following remarkable 
things in the process of naming: 1, assigning names of 
those clusters of ideas called objects ; 2, generalizing those 
names, so as to make them represent a class ; 3, framing 
adjectives by which minor classes are cut out of larger. 
James Mill, Analysis, ix. 
The existence of a man with such mighty powers of dis- 
covery and demonstration as Newton, and the recognition 
of his doctrines among his contemporaries, depend upon 
causes which do not admit of being generalized. 
Sir G. C. Lewis, Authority in Matters of Opinion, ix. 1. 
2. To infer inductively, as a general rule from 
a particular case or set of facts. 
A mere conclusion generalized from a great multitude 
of facts. Coleridge. 
3. In math. , to modify, as a proposition, so as to 
obtain a wider proposition from which the for- 
mer can be immediately deduced. See generali- 
sation, 3 Generalized coordinates. See coordinate. 
II. intrans. 1. To recognize that two or 
more objects have a common character; to 
form a general notion. [Brought into use by 
Reid.] 
We are next to consider the operations of the under- 
standing, by which we are enabled to form general con- 
ceptions. These appear to me to have three : First, 
Tlie resolving or analyzing a subject into its known at- 
tributes, and giving a name to each attribute, which name 
shall signify that attribute, and nothing more. Secondly, 
The observing one or more such attributes to be common 
to many subjects. The first is by philosophers called ab- 
straction ; the second may be called generalizing ; but 
both are commonly included under the name of abstrac- 
tion. Reid, Intellectual Powers (1785), p. 445. 
2. To reason inductively, from particular eases 
to general rules comprehending those cases. 
The reviewer holds that we pass from special experi- 
ences to universal truths in virtue of "the inductive pro- 
pensity the irresistible impulse of the mind to generalize 
ad infinitum." Whewell, Hist. Scientific Ideas, x., note. 
He continually meets witli facts which prove that he 
had generalized on insufficient data. 
H. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 514. 
Also spelled generalise. 
generalized (jen'e-ral-izd), p. a. Specifically, 
in bioL, common or primitive, as a structure or 
organism ; representing or held to represent a 
broad or general type of form ; synthetic ; un- 
differentiated : the opposite of specialized : as, 
a lucernarian is or represents a generalized type 
of hydrozoans ; some fossil mammals had a gen- 
eralized dental formula. 
generalizer (jen'e-ral-1-zer), . One who gen- 
eralizes. Also spelled generaliser. 
Emerson is not a colourist, but a generaliser and abstract 
thinker. Quarterly Ree., CXLV. 156. 
generally (jen'e-raW), adv. [< ME. generally, 
generalliche ; < general + -fy 2 .] If. In a gen- 
eral or universal manner ; with respect to all 
the individuals of a class. 
I curse and blame generally 
Alle hem that loven villanye. 
Ram. of the Rose, 1. 2179. 
So many giddy offences as he hath generally taxed their 
whole sex withal. Shak., As you Like it, iii. 2. 
With joy to the whole armie he was generally welcomed. 
Capt. John Smith, True Travels, I. 17. 
2f. All taken together; collectively; in a body. 
And so all of them generallie have power towards some 
good by the direction of reason. Sir P. Sidney. 
generation 
Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered 
unto thec, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that 
is by tlie sea for multitude. 2 Sam. xvii. 11. 
You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman, 
To whom we all rest generally beholden. 
S/m*-., T. of the S., i. -2. 
3. In general; commonly though not univer- 
sally ; most frequently ; in most cases. 
That the holy Scriptures are one of the greatest bless- 
ings which God bestows upon the sons of men is generally 
acknowledged by all who know anything of tlie value and 
worth of them. Locke. 
Mr. Mill complains that those who maintain tlie affirma- 
tive generally beg the question. 
Macaulay, Mill on Government. 
4. In the main ; without detail ; upon the 
whole. 
Generally speaking, they live very quietly. 
Addition, Guardian. 
= Syn. 3. Usually, ordinarily, mainly, principally, chiefly. 
generalness (jen'e-ral-nes), . The character 
of being general. " [Rare.] 
They had, with a general consent, rather springing by 
the generalness of the cause than of any artificial practice, 
set themselves in arms. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, i. 
generalship (jeu'e-ral-ship), n. [< general + 
-ship.'] 1. The office of a general. 
The generalship of the Lord Digby [was brought] to an 
end. Clarendon, Civil Wars. 
2. The management of an army ; the military 
skill or conduct of a commander. 
He acknowledged . . . that his success . . . was to be 
attributed, not at all to his own generalship, but solely to 
the valour and steadiness of his troops. 
Macaulay, Frederic the Great. 
Hence 3. Management or tactics generally. 
This was looked on in no other light, but as an artful 
stroke of generalship in Trim to raise a dust. Sterne. 
Your generalship puts me in mind of Prince Eugene. 
Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, ii. 
generaltyt (jen'e-ral-ti), n. [< general + -ty. 
Cf. generality.] A generality. 
Nor any long or far-fetched circumstance 
Wrapped in the curious generalties of arts. 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. 
generant (jen'e-rant), a. and n. [< OF. gene- 
rant, < L. genefan(t-)s, ppr. of generare, beget, 
produce: see generate.] I. a. Begetting; pro- 
ducing; generative; specifically, in math., act- 
ing as a generant. See II., 2. 
In such pretended generations the generant or active 
principle is supposed to be the sun, which, being an in- 
animate body, cannot act otherwise than by his heat. 
Ray, Works of Creation, ii. 
II. M. 1. One who or that which generates; 
a generator. [Rare.] 
Some believe the soul made by God, some by angels, and 
some by the generant. Glanmlle, Seep. Sci., iii. 
By a regression of the values of the mid-parentages the 
true generants are derived. 
Francis Gallon, in Science, VI. 272. 
2. In math., a moving locus, the ensemble of 
all of whose positions forms another locus, 
which it is said to generate: as, an isosceles 
triangle revolving on the perpendicular let fall 
from its apex to the base is the generant of a 
right cone. 
generate (jen'e-rat), v. t. ; pret. and pp. gene- 
rated, ppr. generating. [< L. generates, pp. of 
generare, beget, procreate, produce, < genus 
(getter-), a kind, race, family : see genus. Cf. 
gender, v., from the same L. verb.] 1. To be- 
et ; procreate ; engender by sexual union. 
. To produce ; cause to be ; bring into life. 
Things were generated and destroyed before Saturn was 
dismembered. Bacon, Physical Fables, i., Expl. 
And God said, Let the waters generate 
Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul. 
Milton, P. L., vii. 387. 
3. To cause ; form ; give origin to. 
There could, therefore, be little sympathy between them ; 
and centuries of calamities and wrongs had generated a 
strong antipathy. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
A system of pure ethics cannot recognize evil, nor any 
of those conditions which evil generate*. 
H. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 70. 
4. In math., to give rise to, as to a geometrical 
figure ; especially, to move so that the locus of 
the motion shall constitute (the figure speci- 
fied): thus, a right line moving with one point 
fixed generates a conical surface Generating 
function. See function. Generating line or figure, 
in math., that line or figure by the motion of which an- 
other figure or solid is supposed to be described or gen- 
erated. Generating surface, in a boiler, the heating 
surface, or that on which heat is applied for the genera- 
tion of steam. 
generation (jen-e-ra'shon), n. [< ME. genera- 
cioiin = D. generatie = G. Dan. Sw. generation, 
< OF. generation, F. generation = Pr. generacio 
= Sp. generation = Pg. geraqOo = It. generazione. 
