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

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

XPeng says the facility is designed to bring its automotive manufacturing expertise into robotics as competition intensifies among companies developing general-purpose humanoid robots. — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 8 Sep. 2026

But in an interview with NPR last year, Patterson said the projection can create a misleading impression when used as a general-purpose world map. — Jewel Bright, NPR, 4 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for general-purpose

• multipurpose
• purpose