1. the act or an instance of generalizing.
2. A principle, statement, or idea having general application.

1. alternative spelling of generalisation.

1. the act or process of generalizing; the act of bringing individuals or particulars under a genus or class; deduction of a general principle from particulars.
2. A general inference.

1. the act of generalizing; recognition of a character as being common to two or more objects; also, the process of forming a general notion.
2. induction; an inference from the possession of a character by each individual or by some of the individuals of a class to its possession by all the individuals of that class; the observation that the known individuals of a species, or the known species of a genus, have a character in common, and the consequent attribution of that character to the whole class; also, a conclusion so reached.
3. in mathematics, the process or result of modifying a proposition so as to obtain another having wider subject and predicate, but such that a limitation which, if applied to the new subject, gives the old subject, will reproduce the old predicate when applied to the new.
4. also spelled generalisation.
5. in pathology, the involvement of the entire system in a morbid process which was at first local.

1. reasoning from detailed facts to general principles
2. the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances
3. an idea or conclusion having general application
4. (psychology) transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus