Generalities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Statements or ideas that lack specific details, overall qualities or concepts rather than particular examples, and broad references rather than precise information
2. Broad statements which do not include specifics, overarching qualities or traits instead of detailed instances, or general concepts as opposed to particular facts
3. Remarks or assertions that are unspecific, cover general qualities instead of exact details, and refer to main ideas rather than individual facts

Etymology: "Generalities" is the plural of "generality," and the singular has a more interesting trail than its plural suggests. It came into Middle English as "generalite," borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Middle French "generalité," where it was built from "general" plus the suffix "-ité," the French counterpart of English "-ity." Latin "generālitās" also helped shape the word, so English drew on both the French route and the Latin form. The core idea is the one that still runs through the word today. "General" carried the sense of belonging to a whole class or kind rather than to one particular thing, and "generality" names that quality of applying broadly. So when someone speaks in "generalities," they are offering claims about a whole category without the particular cases that would make them concrete.

Synonyms: broad statements, overviews, abstractions

Antonyms: specifics, details, particulars