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# generalisation

«generalisation» in Mova's school dictionary: **a statement about all or most things of a kind, based on…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a generalisation, generalisations; generalisation — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A generalisation is a statement about all or most things of a kind, based on some examples. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#m1)

2) A sweeping generalisation is one that is too broad and unfair, like «all boys hate reading». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#m2)

3) (maths) A generalisation is a rule that works for all cases, like «the sum of two even numbers is always even». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In maths, making generalisations from patterns («each term is 3 more than the last»); in science, conclusions from experiments; in English and PSHE, avoiding unfair generalisations and stereotypes.

### examples

- It is a generalisation to say that all cats hate water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#x1)
- From the pattern we made a generalisation: odd plus odd is even. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#x2)
- Be careful with generalisations about people. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#x3)
- Scientists test a generalisation with more experiments. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#x4)
- «Everyone loves pizza» is a generalisation. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/#x5)

### note

UK spelling «generalisation», US «generalization». Countable. Maths: a generalisation must be checked; one counterexample shows it is false.

### In the corpora

- [Turning one example into a rule is called a hasty generalisation.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/164-it-worked-once-one-example-is-not-all/3/)
- [Making a rule from one example is called a hasty generalisation: one time tells you very little.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/164-it-worked-once-one-example-is-not-all/13/)
- [Judging a whole group by a few of its members is a hasty generalisation.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/168-the-whole-class-punished-and-you-didnt-say-no/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «generalisation» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/generalisation/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.