general (adjective, noun) LISTEN
If something is general, it means that it only includes the main or most important information.
- His report was too general. There weren't enough details in it.
We use general when we want to say that something is true for most people, or for most things.
- The general opinion at the meeting was that it was a good plan. (=Most people thought that it was a good plan.)
If something happens in general, it means that it happens most of the time.
- In general, I prefer trains to buses. (=Sometimes I might prefer the bus, but usually I prefer the train.)
A general is someone who has an important job in the army.
- Before he was president, Dwight Eisenhower was a general in the US army.
In pop culture
The Dictator is a comedy movie about a dictator who comes to visit America. His name is Hafez Aladeen, but he likes people to call him Admiral General Aladeen. In this video from the movie, Aladeen goes to a restaurant where everybody hates him. He doesn’t want anyone there to know who he is, so he decides to give the waiter a fake name. He creates a name from words that he can see around him. Does the waiter believe him?
There are other meanings of general.
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