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

Smaller, task-specific models use a fraction of the energy that large general-purpose models do for the same job, and for a lot of enterprise tasks, including classification, extraction and routing, the smaller model is accurate enough. — Eshaan Jain, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026

But general-purpose intelligence does not necessarily require a humanoid body. — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 15 Aug. 2026

Made by stacking general-purpose dynamic random access memory, HBM is the highest bandwidth memory capable of rapid data access that helps AI processors execute tasks. — Katie Tarasov, CNBC, 13 Aug. 2026

But these are specialized tools tested in research studies — not the general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT that most teens actually use. — Megan Kelly, The Conversation, 13 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for general-purpose

• multipurpose
• purpose