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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

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.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹə.lɪst/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈd͡ʒen.(ə.)ɹə.lɪst/Australia
  1. 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.

  2. A general practitioner.

  3. Species which can thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions. A eurytopic species.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os Proto-Italic *genos Latin genus, generis Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin generālisbor. Anglo-Norman generalbor. Middle French generalbor. ▲ Latin generālisder. Middle English general English general Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English generalist From general + -ist.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.