generic

Definition

Very broad; pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific instances.

Etymology

From Middle French générique, from Latin genus (“genus, kind”) + -ic; thus morphologically parallel with, and a doublet of, general.

Example Sentences

• "Capri pants can be a generic term for any cropped slim pants."
• "[…] the essence is that such self-describing poets describe what is in them, but not peculiar to them, – what is generic, not what is special and individual."
• "The four-and-one-half-day trial was centered on acts that neither she nor prosecutors dispute: On July 13, 2012, she drove her Lexus S.U.V. erratically after swallowing Zolpidem, a generic form of the sleep medication Ambien."

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