Word.ws English Dictionary

generall

generall is the archaic spelling of general.

Meaning of general

Adjective

general (comparative more general, superlative most general)

  1. Including or involving every part or member of a given or implied entity, whole, etc.; common to all, universal.
    • It is generall / To be mortall: / I haue well espyde / No man may hym hyde / From Deth holow eyed […].c. 1495, John Skelton, "Vppon a deedman's hed"
  2. (postpositional, sometimes) Applied to a person (as a postmodifier or a normal preceding adjective) to indicate supreme rank, in civil or military titles, and later in other terms; pre-eminent.
    • For these successes he obtained the rank of Field-Marshal General.1865, Edward Cust, Lives of the Warriors of the Thirty Years War, page 527
  3. Prevalent or widespread among a given class or area; common, usual.
    • ‘I can't quite afford you the sympathy you expect upon this score,’ I replied; ‘the misfortune is so general, that it belongs to one half of the species […].’1817, Sir Walter Scott, chapter IX, in Rob Roy
    Antonyms:
    abnormal, uncommon
  4. Not limited in use or application; applicable across a broad range.
    • M. Venizelos went to Athens from Paris early last January in response to a general invitation from the Greek populace.1924 March 17, Time
  5. Giving or consisting of only the most important aspects of something, ignoring minor details; indefinite.
    • As she thus spoke, the entrance of the servants with dinner cut off all conversation but that of a general nature.1817, Sir Walter Scott, chapter X, in Rob Roy
  6. Not of a specific class; miscellaneous.
    • general goods

See all 15 meanings of general

Questions about generall

What is generall the archaic spelling of?
Generall is the archaic spelling of general.

Words near generall in the dictionary

  1. generalizer
  2. generalizers
  3. generalizes
  4. generalizibility
  5. generalizing
  6. generall
  7. generalled
  8. generalling
  9. generally
  10. generally speaking
  11. generalness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: generall (page history and authors); general (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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Cite this entry: “generall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/generall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.