generalize
gb/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz/ us/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz/
C1
Inglés
~ 6500
Acepciones
0 acepciones
Verbo
C1
action
1
make broad statement about a group
To talk about many people or things as if they are all the same, usually from only a few examples.
Patrón de uso:
[someone] generalizes about [a group]
Error frecuente:
Learners sometimes confuse "generalize" with "be general". "Be general" describes a style of speaking or writing (not detailed), while "generalize" is an action: you make a broad statement about a group, often based on too little information. Also, learners sometimes say *"make generalize"* instead of "make a generalization" or simply "generalize".
Sinónimos
stereotype (Often stronger and more negative, especially for unfair beliefs about groups of people.)
|
oversimplify (Focuses on making something too simple, not necessarily about a whole group, but often overlaps in use.)
Antónimos
differentiate (Means to see or show the differences between people or things instead of treating them as all the same.)
|
be specific (Means to talk about particular details rather than making a broad, general statement.)
Colocaciones
generalize about people
|generalize about women/men
|tend to generalize
|hard to generalize
|cannot generalize
|try not to generalize
Temas
communication
|thinking
|core_vocabulary
Ejemplos
- You can’t generalize about an entire generation based on a few teenagers you met.
- The article tends to generalize and ignores important differences between countries.
- It’s dangerous to generalize about people from such a small sample.
- She hates it when others generalize about single parents.
- We should avoid generalizing from our own experience to everyone else.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- You should not generalize about all students from one bad experience.
- He often generalizes and says things like "All politicians are liars."
- It is wrong to generalize about a whole country after one short trip.
- They generalize about old people and say they cannot use technology.
- Teachers tell students not to generalize from one example.
Verbo
formal
C1
action
2
draw a general rule from data
To use information from some cases to make a rule that you think is true for many cases.
Patrón de uso:
[someone] generalizes [results] to [a larger group]
Error frecuente:
Learners sometimes use "generalize" here when they mean "summarize". "Summarize" means to give the main points of information. "Generalize" in this sense means to take results from some cases and claim they are true for many more cases.
Sinónimos
extrapolate (Common in technical and scientific contexts; stresses extending known data or trends to an unknown area.)
|
infer (A more general word for reaching a conclusion from evidence; does not always imply extending from small to large groups.)
Antónimos
particularize (Means to focus on or describe specific cases instead of forming a broad rule.)
|
restrict (Means to limit results or claims to the original cases rather than extending them to a wider group.)
Colocaciones
generalize findings
|generalize results
|generalize from a sample
|generalize to the wider population
|generalize beyond the study
|difficult to generalize
Temas
science
|academia
|thinking
|education
Ejemplos
- Because the study only included men over 60, we cannot safely generalize the results to the whole population.
- Researchers are careful not to generalize from a small, non‑representative sample.
- These findings may generalize to other regions, but more data are needed.
- The model does not generalize well to new data sets collected in different conditions.
- It is risky to generalize from laboratory experiments to real‑world behavior.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- The study is small, so we cannot generalize the results to all students.
- Scientists want to know if the results can generalize to other countries.
- We should not quickly generalize from one city to a whole nation.
- The experiment was done on animals, so it may not generalize to humans.
- The teacher asked if the rule can generalize to other examples.
Verbo
formal
C1
action
3
make a rule less specific
To make a rule or idea more broad so it can be used for more things, not just special cases.
Patrón de uso:
[someone] generalizes [a rule or concept]
Error frecuente:
Learners may confuse this sense with simply speaking in a vague way. Here, "generalize" is usually careful and planned: you change a rule or idea so it covers more cases, not just make it unclear.
Sinónimos
broaden (A common word for making something more general or wide; not limited to rules or definitions.)
|
abstract (Often used in academic contexts for making something more general and less tied to concrete details.)
Antónimos
narrow (Means to make a rule or idea more limited or specific in its range.)
|
specify (Means to add detail or limit, making something more exact rather than more general.)
Colocaciones
generalize a rule
|generalize the concept
|generalize the definition
|highly generalized statement
|generalize across contexts
|generalize the curriculum
Temas
academia
|education
|science
|core_vocabulary
Ejemplos
- The authors attempt to generalize the concept so it can be applied in different disciplines.
- In the next chapter, we generalize this rule to cover irregular verbs as well.
- The theory needs to be generalized beyond this narrow set of assumptions.
- We can generalize the algorithm to work with other types of input data.
- By removing these details, we generalize the definition and make it more flexible.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- The teacher shows how to generalize this grammar rule to other verbs.
- We can generalize the idea so it works for many problems, not just this one.
- The new plan tries to generalize the policy for all employees.
- They generalize the method so it can be used in other studies.
- If we generalize the rule, students will find it easier to use in many situations.
Verbo
technical
C2
action
4
perform well on unseen data
To use what was learned from some examples and do well on new examples that were not seen before, especially in science or computing.
Patrón de uso:
[a model/system] generalizes well to [new data]
Error frecuente:
Learners may think "generalize" here means simply "to talk in general". In technical fields (especially machine learning and psychology), it specifically refers to good performance on new data or new situations after training.
Sinónimos
transfer (In learning theory, focuses on using knowledge from one context in another; not always about measured performance on new data.)
|
adapt (Stresses changing behavior for new situations; less specific about using learned patterns from training data.)
Antónimos
overfit (Technical term in machine learning: a model fits training data too closely and does not generalize well to new data.)
|
memorize (In learning contexts, implies only storing specific examples rather than applying patterns to new ones.)
Colocaciones
generalize well
|fail to generalize
|ability to generalize
|generalize to new data
|generalize to unseen cases
|generalize across tasks
Temas
technology
|science
|education
Ejemplos
- The model performs well on the training set but fails to generalize to real‑world data.
- Children quickly generalize from a few examples of a word to many new contexts.
- A key challenge in machine learning is building systems that generalize well beyond their training data.
- These results suggest that the skill does not generalize across different types of tasks.
- Our approach appears to generalize to larger datasets without major changes.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- The system works in the lab but does not generalize to real life.
- A good AI model should generalize well to new data.
- The skill you learn in this class can generalize to other subjects.
- Researchers want to know if the program can generalize to different languages.
- The method may not generalize to very small or very large groups.
Gramática
Forma de diccionario
generalize
AFI
GB/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz/
US/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz/
Sílabas y acento
gen - er - al - ize (4 sílabas)
Stress on 1st syllable (gen)
Formas de la palabra
Verb
- Base: generalize
- 3rd Person Singular: generalizes
- Present Participle: generalizing
- Past: generalized
Familia de palabras
Forms
generalizes
verb
generalizing
verb
generalized
verb
Core family
Related words
generalizable
adjective
generalist
noun C1
Negative and opposite forms
ungeneralizable
adjective
Advanced or less common
overgeneralize
verb
overgeneralization
noun
generality
noun
Expresiones
generalize about
1/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz əbˈaʊt/
fixed phrase
make broad claims about a group
To say general things about a group of people or things, often from only a few examples.
Ejemplos
- People often generalize about teenagers without really talking to them.
- We shouldn’t generalize about whole cultures based on stereotypes.
generalize from
1/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz fɹˈʌm/
fixed phrase
formal
draw broad conclusion from cases
To make a rule or idea for many cases based on some examples or data.
Ejemplos
- The sample is too small to generalize from with confidence.
- We must be cautious when we generalize from animal studies to humans.
generalize to
1/d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz tə/
fixed phrase
formal
extend results to wider group
To say that results, rules, or skills also work for a larger group or in a new situation.
Ejemplos
- These findings may not generalize to children under five.
- The training data came from Europe, so it is unclear if the model will generalize to other regions.
hard to generalize
1/hˈɑɹd tə d͡ʒˈɛnɚəlˌaɪz/
fixed phrase
difficult to make broad claims
Used to say that you cannot easily make a general rule or statement from the information you have.
Ejemplos
- With such different cases, it’s hard to generalize.
- Experiences vary so much that it’s hard to generalize from one person’s story.