Word.ws English Dictionary

generic names

generic names is the plural of generic name.

Meaning of generic name

Noun

generic name (plural generic names)

  1. The first word in a binominal name, which identifies the genus of the lifeform considered.
    • Holonyms: species name (the binomial unit), binominal name, binomial name
  2. (pharmacy) A nonproprietary name given to a drug that is used to identify it irrespective of trademark.
    • Its generic name is rosuvastatin, but you may know it better by the proprietary name Crestor.
    Antonyms:
    trade name
  3. A similar nonproprietary name for any other product or service, denoting any member of the category.
    • Its generic name is flying disc, but you may know it better by the proprietary name Frisbee. The generic name frisbee (lowercase) is used informally but not officially or legally.

Questions about generic names

What is generic names the plural of?
Generic names is the plural of generic name.

Words near generic names in the dictionary

  1. generic functions
  2. generic interval
  3. generic intervals
  4. generic masculine
  5. generic name
  6. generic names
  7. generic platformer
  8. generic platformers
  9. generic programming
  10. generic properties
  11. generic property

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: generic names (page history and authors); generic name (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: “generic names.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/generic_names. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.