generalist
noun
Simple meaning
A modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
jehneruhlistSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʒɛnɚəlɪst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests
“A statistician has to be something of a generalist.”
A person with a broad general knowledge, especially one with more than superficial knowledge in several areas and the ability to combine ideas from diverse fields.
ecology
Species which can thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions. A eurytopic species.
medicine
A general practitioner.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests
Used this way, generalist is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“A statistician has to be something of a generalist.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use generalist
- “A statistician has to be something of a generalist.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An idea or conclusion having general application.
Usually.
Draw from specific cases for more general cases.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.