Generality: meaning, definitions and examples

in philosophy

The quality of being general; a general statement or concept.

abstraction, concept, generalization.

Which Synonym Should You Choose?

Word	Description / Examples
generality	Used when referring to a statement or principle that applies broadly but may lack detail or precision. The professor spoke in generalities, avoiding specifics about the experiment.
abstraction	Suitable when discussing ideas that are theoretical and not concrete, often in art, science, or philosophy. In mathematics, abstraction allows us to work with different sets of numbers.
concept	Used when referring to an idea or principle that is well-defined and is meant to understand or explain something. The concept of gravity explains why objects fall to the ground.
generalization	Commonly used when making broad statements that apply to many cases, usually based on specific instances, but can sometimes be considered an oversimplification. Saying all dogs are friendly is a generalization that may not always be true.

Examples of usage

• He preferred to speak in generalities rather than specifics.

• The discussion lacked depth, focusing only on generalities.

in everyday language

A vague or imprecise statement.

Examples of usage

• His speech was full of generalities and lacked concrete details.

• Stop talking in generalities and give me specific examples.

in statistics

A measure of the extent to which data points in a statistical distribution diverge from the mean.

Examples of usage

• The generality of the data points indicated a high level of variance.

• The researcher analyzed the generality of the sample to draw conclusions.