generalisation
noun
generalisation is a noun meaning “The formulation of general concepts from specific instances by abstracting common properties” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled G-E-N-E-R-A-L-I-S-A-T-I-O-N, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of generalisation is generalisations.
What does generalisation mean?
noun
- 1
The formulation of general concepts from specific instances by abstracting common properties.
- 2
Inductive reasoning from detailed facts to general principles.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce generalisation?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-generalisation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of generalisation
- generalisations plural
- generalization US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is generalisation?
Generalisation appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,808th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Generalisation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense formulation of general concepts:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | généralisation |
| German | Verallgemeinerung, Generalisierung |
| Portuguese | generalização |
| Spanish | generalización |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.