How to spell general

hear itgen·er·al/'dʒɛnərəl/nounSounds

What it means: The overall or main part of something.

In a sentence: In general, cats like to sleep a lot during the day.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as genral or generael.

Same family: generalship, generalissimo, lieutenant-general, major-general, brigadier-general. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: The word "general" comes from Medieval Latin "generalis," meaning "of a whole kind, in general." It became a military rank because a "captain general" was the officer in charge of an entire army, not just one smaller unit.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

number · science · countries · america · because · would · into · whole

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