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

The consensus is that for critical business functions, success depends on rigorously validated, specialized AI tailored to specific workflows, rather than broad, general-purpose solutions. — Terdawn Deboe, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026

This was followed by UnifoLM-VLA-0 in early 2026, a vision-language-action model for general-purpose humanoid manipulation released with open-source training code and model weights. — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 21 July 2026

Frozen would become a more specialized branch of Google’s custom-chip portfolio rather than replace its general-purpose TPUs. — Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 20 July 2026

Such a vision will require overcoming multiple challenges in AI training and hardware development before humanoid robots can become general-purpose robots working autonomously in workplaces or homes. — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 16 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for general-purpose

• multipurpose
• purpose