# generic

> English word · Adjective · IPA /dʒᵻˈnɛ.ɹɪk/ · frequency rank #5,966

## Definitions
1. Very broad; pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific instances.
2. Lacking in precision, often in an evasive fashion; vague; imprecise.
3. Of a product or drug, not having a brand name; nonproprietary in design or contents; fungible with the rest of its class.
4. Pertaining to genera of life instead of particular species thereof.
5. Relating to gender.
6. Specifying neither masculine nor feminine; epicene; unisex.
7. Of a procedure, written so as to operate on any data type, the type required being passed as a parameter.
8. Of a point, having coordinates that are algebraically independent over the base field.
9. Relating to genre.
10. Having no distinguishing characteristics; unoriginal.

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

## Easily confused with
- **genetic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generic-vs-genetic)
- **genesis** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generic-vs-genesis)
- **genomic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generic-vs-genomic)
- **genetics** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/generic-vs-genetics)
- **genera** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/genera-vs-generic)
- **general** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/general-vs-generic)

## Common misspellings (10)
`egneric`, `geenric`, `geneirc`, `generci`, `genericc`, `generric`, `genneric`, `genreic`, `ggeneric`, `gneeric`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/generic