general-purpose

adjective

gen·​er·​al-pur·​pose ˈjen-rəl-ˈpər-pəs 

ˈje-nə-

: suitable to be used for two or more basic purposes

Synonyms of general-purpose

• unlimited
• general
• unrestricted

Examples of general-purpose in a Sentence

a general-purpose glue for routine household repairs

Recent Examples on the Web

What is new is the attempt to scale that idea into general-purpose, generative systems trained on massive visual and multimodal data. — ArsTechnica, 13 July 2026

In some cases, smaller models that are tuned for a specific task can be faster and perform better than larger general-purpose models. — Deirdre Bosa,jasmine Wu, CNBC, 10 July 2026

According to the team, the system can already perform all of the key computational operations required for a general-purpose quantum computer. — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 9 July 2026

When an organization needs a model to accurately extract adverse event data from clinical trial reports or classify regulatory filings against evolving compliance frameworks, general-purpose knowledge becomes noise. — Rivindu Perera, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for general-purpose

• multipurpose
• purpose