general
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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7 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "general", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "general" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "general" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
general is anEnglishadj. It means: Including or involving every part or member of a given or implied entity, whole, etc.; common to all, universal. Pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹəl/. It ranks #320 in English word frequency. Often confused with Geneva and genial.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | general |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #320 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for general is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #320 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for general, with forms such as "egneral", "geenral", and "genearl". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "Geneva", "genial", "generic", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English general, in turn from Anglo-Norman general, generall, Middle French general, and their source, Latin generālis, from genus (“class, kind”) + -ālis (“-al”); thus morphologically parallel with, and a doublet of, generic. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is general, spelled G-E-N-E-R-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Including or involving every part or member of a given or implied entity, whole, etc.; common to all, universal.
- 2Applied to a person (as a postmodifier or a normal preceding adjective) to indicate supreme rank, in civil or military titles, and later in other terms; pre-eminent.
- 3Prevalent or widespread among a given class or area; common, usual.
- 4Not limited in use or application; applicable across a broad range.
- 5Giving or consisting of only the most important aspects of something, ignoring minor details; indefinite.
- 6Not of a specific class; miscellaneous.
Etymology
From Middle English general, in turn from Anglo-Norman general, generall, Middle French general, and their source, Latin generālis, from genus (“class, kind”) + -ālis (“-al”); thus morphologically parallel with, and a doublet of, generic.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: egneral,geenral,genearl,generall,generla,generral,genneral,genreal,ggeneral,gneeral
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for general
Misspelling Variants of "general"
Frequency rank: #320 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: