Generalization

How to spell generalization

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce generalization

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does generalization mean?

1. nounA broad statement or conclusion drawn from particular cases, often treating a whole group as if it were uniform.

Generalization in a sentence

• The report avoided any sweeping generalization about the entire workforce.

• Drawing a generalization from a single customer complaint is risky.

Where does generalization come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin generalis, meaning 'relating to a whole class or kind' rather than to a single thing, which itself grew from genus, the Latin for 'race, kind, or category'. The adjective 'general' arrived in English through Old French in the medieval period, and from it English speakers later built the verb 'generalize', meaning to form a broad conclusion from particular cases. The abstract noun 'generalization' followed, formed with the Latin-derived ending -ation that turns an action into a thing, and it became common in scientific and philosophical writing from the 1700s onward. The same genus root still sits inside familiar relatives such as 'genre', 'genus', and 'generate'. The spelling trap is the long, unstressed middle: the schwa vowels in gen-er-al-i-za-tion give few clues, and writers must remember the -ize before the -ation rather than collapsing the ending.

How the word is built

• general (relating to the whole, not specific)
• -ize (verb-forming: to make)
• -ation (noun: the act or result of)

British and American spelling

Generalization is the American spelling. British English spells it generalisation.