I. gen ‧ e ‧ ral ‧ ise /ˈdʒen ə rəlaɪz/ BrE AmE verb [I, T]
a British spelling of ↑ generalize
II. gen ‧ e ‧ ral ‧ ize BrE AmE ( also generalise British English ) /ˈdʒen ə rəlaɪz/ verb
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ generalization , ↑ general , ↑ generalist , ↑ generality ; adjective : ↑ general , ↑ generalist , ↑ generalized ; verb : ↑ generalize ; adverb : ↑ generally ]
1 . [intransitive] to form a general principle or opinion after considering only a small number of facts or examples
generalize from
She has a tendency to generalize from her husband to all men.
2 . [intransitive] to make a general statement about the whole of a group or thing
generalize about
It is difficult to generalise about the kind of people who come on these courses.
3 . [transitive] formal to say that an idea, result etc is related to a larger group:
Can we generalise this principle?
generalize something to something
Can the research findings be generalized to a wider population?