Word.ws English Dictionary

ejusdem generis

ejusdem generis phrase: a canon of construction holding that when a general term follows a list of particular terms, the general term only applies to things similar to the particular terms.

Phrase

ejusdem generis

  1. A canon of construction holding that when a general term follows a list of particular terms, the general term only applies to things similar to the particular terms.
    • I would submit to the court that in order to determine the legislature's intent of the final phrase we need to apply the interpretive maxim of ejusdem generis to the sentence that contains the sequence.
    • Or what relation has debating \ Of church-affairs with bear-baiting? \ A just comparison still is \ Of things ejusdem generis: \ And then what genus rightly doth \ Include, and comprehend them both?1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras (poem), London, →OCLC, →OL, Part 1, canto 1, lines 853–858

Origin of ejusdem generis

From Latin ejusdem generis ("of the same kind").

Questions about ejusdem generis

What does ejusdem generis mean?
Ejusdem generis means a canon of construction holding that when a general term follows a list of particular terms, the general term only applies to things similar to the particular terms.
What part of speech is ejusdem generis?
Ejusdem generis is a phrase.

Words near ejusdem generis in the dictionary

  1. ejournals
  2. ejulation
  3. ejulations
  4. ejuration
  5. ejurations
  6. ejusdem generis
  7. EK
  8. eka-
  9. eka-actinium
  10. eka-aluminium
  11. eka-aluminum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ejusdem generis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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