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generic

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

General and not specific, applying to a large group

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

juhnehrik

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dʒəˈnɛɹɪk

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  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. pharmacology

    Of a product or drug, not having a brand name; nonproprietary in design or contents; fungible with the rest of its class.

  4. Having no distinguishing characteristics; unoriginal.

  5. Relating to gender.

  6. Relating to genre.

noun

  1. Any product that can be sold without a brand name

  2. A wine that is a combination of several wines, or made from a combination of several grape varieties.

  3. A product sold under a generic name.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (pharmacology) Of a product or drug, not having a brand name; nonproprietary in design or contents; fungible with the rest of its class.

Used this way, generic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Product

generic namegeneric drug

Pertaining

generic termgeneric type

Other combinations

generic sensegeneric charactergeneric formgeneric model

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • generationnounDerived noun · specialist

    All the people living at the same time or of approximately the same age.

  • generaladjectiveDerived adjective

    Applying to all or most members of a category or group.

  • generallyadverbDerived adverb

    Usually.

  • genericallyadverbDerived adverb

    Without a trademark or brand name.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • generic drugnounCompound term

    When the patent protection for a brand-name drug expires generic versions of the drug can be offered for sale if the FDA agrees.

  • generic nounnounCompound term

    A noun that does not specify either masculine or feminine gender.

  • generic winenounCompound term

    Wine that does not meet the minimum qualifications and standards for use of a designation by appellation of origin (where the grapes are grown) or by varietal content.

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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.