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

Companies are betting that humanoid robots can eventually become general-purpose, autonomous robots that can handle many different tasks and fit more easily into workplaces already designed for humans. — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 22 Sep. 2026

The package contains 20,000 MK-84 and 20,000 BLU-117 bombs, which are both powerful, general-purpose heavy munitions, along with other explosives, the sources said. — ABC News, 16 Sep. 2026

Across both commercial ambient platforms and general-purpose models applied to clinical documentation, the more common failure is under-capture rather than inventing what wasn’t said. — Pat Williams, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026

Yushiro Kato, CADDi’s cofounder and CEO, tells Fortune that CADDi uses its own proprietary AI model to analyze product data like drawings and CAD files, and general-purpose large language models for documents and spreadsheets. — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for general-purpose

• multipurpose
• purpose