verb · neutral
generalize
/ˈdʒenrəlaɪz/GEN·er·al·ize
Band 6-7speakingtask2
to form a broad conclusion from specific cases or evidence
Examples
“You shouldn't generalize about people's habits just from a single study.”
“Teachers warned students not to generalize from one small sample.”
“When writing essays, avoid generalizing without data to support your claim.”
Band 8 sentence
“In academic contexts it's dangerous to generalize from a handful of observations without robust statistical support.”
Collocations
- generalize from
- generalize about
- over-generalize
Word family
generalize verbgeneralization / generalisation noungeneral adjectivegenerally adverb
Common mistakes
generalize about the data→generalize from the data
make a generalize→make a generalization
Say it for a higher band
5say→6conclude→7+generalize
Synonyms
extrapolate
oversimplify
Easily confused
stereotype
“It's unfair to generalize about an entire group based on a few cases.”
Related words
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In -ize
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