as in unlimited
not limited or specialized in application or purpose
there's nothing wrong with all-purpose flour for baking bread, but flour with more gluten is better
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Recent Examples of all-purpose
Fertilize with organic, granular, all-purpose fruit tree fertilizer.
—
Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 May 2026
Audio performance is clear but not very loud, working best in quiet environments and falling short in noisy ones, which reinforces its role as a personal, stationary display rather than an all-purpose wearable.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 29 Apr. 2026
Wortham earned All-Big Sky Conference honors at receiver at Eastern Washington and again for his senior season in 2025 at Montana, where the 5-8, 180-pound burner produced a school-record 2,431 all-purpose yards.
—Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 28 Apr. 2026
One bottle of all-purpose spray for the sink, another for the shower and another for the toilet.
—Jolie Kerr, Washington Post, 26 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for all-purpose
Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 May 2026
Audio performance is clear but not very loud, working best in quiet environments and falling short in noisy ones, which reinforces its role as a personal, stationary display rather than an all-purpose wearable.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 29 Apr. 2026
Wortham earned All-Big Sky Conference honors at receiver at Eastern Washington and again for his senior season in 2025 at Montana, where the 5-8, 180-pound burner produced a school-record 2,431 all-purpose yards.
—Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 28 Apr. 2026
One bottle of all-purpose spray for the sink, another for the shower and another for the toilet.
—Jolie Kerr, Washington Post, 26 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for all-purpose
Recent Examples of Synonyms for all-purpose
Adjective
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Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
17 May 2026
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Subscribe now to support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage.—
Wendy Goodman,
Curbed,
16 May 2026
Adjective
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The Fields pairs highly adaptable facilities with expert, hands-on production support — a combination that general manager RoseMary Prodonovich says is designed to fuel creative endeavors.—
Kathy A. McDonald,
Variety,
15 May 2026
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Husband is a genuinely excellent partner and a kind, funny, good person in general.—
Carolyn Hax,
Washington Post,
15 May 2026
Adjective
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Galvin’s research will examine how early-career doctors use OpenEvidence and compare its answers to those from several general-purpose chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, using the same prompts.—
Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
13 May 2026
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Prior general-purpose technologies, like electricity, were much easier to explain and demonstrate to Americans of all ages.—
Kevin Frazier,
Fortune,
13 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“All-purpose.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/all-purpose. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
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