different between general vs state

English

Alternative forms

• generall (chiefly archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English general, in turn from Anglo-Norman general, generall, Middle French general, and their source, Latin gener?lis, from genus (“class, kind”) + -?lis (“-al”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?d???n??l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d???n???l/
• Hyphenation: gene?ral, gen?er?al

Adjective

general (comparative more general, superlative most general)

1. Including or involving every part or member of a given or implied entity, whole etc.; as opposed to specific or particular. [from 13th c.]
2. (sometimes postpositive) Applied to a person (as a postmodifier or a normal preceding adjective) to indicate supreme rank, in civil or military titles, and later in other terms; pre-eminent. [from 14th c.]
3. Prevalent or widespread among a given class or area; common, usual. [from 14th c.]
4. Not limited in use or application; applicable to the whole or every member of a class or category. [from 14th c.]
5. Giving or consisting of only the most important aspects of something, ignoring minor details; indefinite. [from 16th c.]
6. Not limited to a specific class; miscellaneous, concerned with all branches of a given subject or area. [from 16th c.]

Synonyms

• (involving every part or member): broad, generic; see also Thesaurus:generic
• (prevalent or widespread): typical; see also Thesaurus:common

Antonyms

• (involving every part or member): particular, specific; see also Thesaurus:specific
• (prevalent or widespread): abnormal, uncommon

Derived terms

Related terms

• universal
• common

Translations

Noun

general (countable and uncountable, plural generals)

1. (now rare) A general fact or proposition; a generality. [from 16th c.]

2. (military) The holder of a senior military title, originally designating the commander of an army and now a specific rank falling under field marshal (in the British army) and below general of the army or general of the air force in the US army and air forces. [from 16th c.]
3. A great strategist or tactician. [from 16th c.]

4. (Christianity) The head of certain religious orders, especially Dominicans or Jesuits. [from 16th c.]
5. (nautical) A commander of naval forces; an admiral. [16th-18th c.]
6. (colloquial, now historical) A general servant; a maid with no specific duties. [from 19th c.]
7. (countable) A general anesthetic.
8. (uncountable) General anesthesia.
9. (uncountable, insurance) The general insurance industry.

Usage notes

When used as a title, it is always capitalized.

Example: General John Doe.

The rank corresponds to pay grade O-10. Abbreviations: GEN.

Coordinate terms

• (insurance industry): health, life, pensions

Translations

See also

• hetman

Verb

general (third-person singular simple present generals, present participle generalling or generaling, simple past and past participle generalled or generaled)

1. To lead (soldiers) as a general.

Adverb

general (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) In a general or collective manner or sense; in most cases; upon the whole.

Anagrams

• enlarge, gleaner, reangle

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /??.n???al/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /d??e.ne??al/

Adjective

general (masculine and feminine plural generals)

1. general

Noun

general m (plural generals, feminine generala)

1. (military) general

Derived terms

Further reading

• “general” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “general” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “general” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “general” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Danish

Noun

general c (singular definite generalen, plural indefinite generaler)

1. general

Inflection

Ladin

Adjective

general m (feminine singular generala, masculine plural generai, feminine plural generales)

1. general

Middle English

Alternative forms

• generall, generale

Etymology

From a mixture of Anglo-Norman general, Middle French general, and Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??n??ra?l/, /?d??n?ral/

Adjective

general

1. universal, complete
2. comprehensive, wide-ranging
3. general, widely useable or applicable
4. common, widely present

Descendants

• English: general
• Scots: general

References

• “?ener?l, adj. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-01.

Noun

general (plural generals)

1. genus, class, group

References

• “?ener?l, adj. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-01.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

general m (definite singular generalen, indefinite plural generaler, definite plural generalene)

1. (military) a general

Derived terms

• generalguvernør

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

general m (definite singular generalen, indefinite plural generalar, definite plural generalane)

1. (military) a general

Derived terms

• generalguvernør

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gener?lis.

Noun

general m (oblique plural generaus or generax or generals, nominative singular generaus or generax or generals, nominative plural general)

1. (military) general

Adjective

general m (oblique and nominative feminine singular generale)

1. general (not limited in use or application; applicable to the whole or every member of a class or category)

Declension

Descendants

• ? English: general
• French: général

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gener?lis. See also geral, from the same source.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?e.ne??a??/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /??.n???a?/
• Hyphenation: ge?ne?ral

Noun

general m (plural generais, feminine generala, feminine plural generalas)

1. (military) general

Descendants

• ? Tetum: jenerál

Further reading

• “general” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French général, from Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??e.ne?ral/

Noun

general m (plural generali)

1. general

Declension

Adjective

general m or n (feminine singular general?, masculine plural generali, feminine and neuter plural generale)

1. general

Declension

Related terms

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From German General, from Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?en?ra?l/
• Hyphenation: ge?ne?ral

Noun

genèr?l m (Cyrillic spelling ????????)

1. (military) general

Declension

Slovene

Etymology

From German General, from Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n?rá?l/

Noun

gener?l m anim (female equivalent gener?lica or gener?lka)

1. (military) general

Inflection

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xene??al/, [xe.ne??al]

Adjective

general (plural generales)

1. general

Derived terms

Noun

general m (plural generales, feminine generala, feminine plural generalas)

1. (military) general

Descendants

• ? Cebuano: heneral
• ? Tagalog: heneral

Further reading

• “general” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Swedish

Etymology

From German General, from Old French general, from Latin gener?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /j?n(?)?r??l/

Noun

general c

1. a general; a military title
2. an Air Chief Marshal

Declension

Descendants

• ? Finnish: kenraali

References

English

Etymology

Middle English (as a noun); adopted c. 1200 from both Old French estat and Latin status (“manner of standing, attitude, position, carriage, manner, dress, apparel; and other senses”), from stare (“to stand”). Doublet of estate and status. The sense of "polity" develops in the 14th century. Compare French être, Greek ???? (stéo), Italian stare, Portuguese estar, Romanian sta, and Spanish estar.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ste?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Noun

state (plural states)

2. A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
   1. (physics) A complete description of a system, consisting of parameters that determine all properties of the system.
      • 1977, J. B. Sykes and John Stewart Bell, translating Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz, Course of Theoretical Physics Vol. 3: Quantum Mechanics: Non-relativistic Theory, p.28:

        States in which the energy has definite values are called stationary states of a system; they are described by wave functions ?_n which are the eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian operator, i.e. which satisfy the equation ??_n = E_n?_n, where E_n are the eigenvalues of the energy.

   2. (computing) The stable condition of a processor during a particular clock cycle.

   3. (computing) The set of all parameters relevant to a computation.

   4. (computing) The values of all parameters at some point in a computation.

   5. (sciences) The physical property of matter as solid, liquid, gas or plasma.
   6. (obsolete) Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
3. High social standing or circumstance.
   1. Pomp, ceremony, or dignity.

   2. Rank; condition; quality.
      • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Richard III, [Act I, Scene iii]:

        And le?ned by that ?mall, God I be?eech him, / Thy honor, ?tate, and ?eate, is due to me.

   3. Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous circumstances; social importance.
   4. A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais; a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself.
   5. (obsolete) A great person, a dignitary; a lord or prince.
      • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica, page 1:

        They who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth direct their Speech, High Court of Parlament, or wanting ?uch acce??e in a private condition, write that which they fore?ee may advance the publick good?; I ?uppo?e them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter’d and mov’d inwardly in their mindes […]

   6. (obsolete) Estate, possession.
5. A polity.
   1. Any sovereign polity; a national or city-state government.
      • a. 1949, Albert Einstein, as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist (1949)

        Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
   2. A political division of a federation retaining a notable degree of autonomy, as in the United States, Germany, or Australia.
   3. (obsolete) A form of government other than a monarchy.
   4. (anthropology) A society larger than a tribe. A society large enough to form a state in the sense of a government.
6. (mathematics, stochastic processes) An element of the range of the random variables that define a random process.
7. (grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that do not change over time.

   Antonym: occurrence

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Pages starting with “state”.

Translations

Verb

state (third-person singular simple present states, present participle stating, simple past and past participle stated)

1. (transitive) To declare to be a fact.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.

2. (transitive) To make known.

Usage notes

State is stronger or more definitive than say. It is used to communicate an absence of reasonable doubt and to emphasize the factual or truthful nature of the communication.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:communicate

Translations

Adjective

state (comparative more state, superlative most state)

1. (obsolete) Stately.

Related terms

• estate
• statistics
• status
• State

See also

• department
• province

Further reading

• state on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• state at OneLook Dictionary Search
• state in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• state in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• state in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Satet, Testa, Tetas, aetts, atest, taste, teats, testa

Afrikaans

Noun

state

1. plural of staat

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sta.te/
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: stà?te

Etymology 1

Apheretic form of estate.

Noun

state f (plural stati)

1. (Tuscany) Alternative form of estate

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

state

1. inflection of stare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Participle

state

1. feminine plural of stato

Anagrams

• setta, testa

References

• state in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti

Latin

Verb

st?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of st?

Participle

state

1. vocative masculine singular of status