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English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of generic in English

generic
adjective
uk
/dʒəˈner.ɪk/ us
/dʒəˈner.ɪk/
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formal
shared by, typical of, or relating to a whole group of similar things, rather than to any particular thing:
The new range of engines all had a generic problem with their fan blades.
generic drugs or other products do not have a trademark and are sold without the name of the company that produced them
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Typifying, illustrating and exemplifying
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
generic
noun [ C ]
uk
/dʒəˈner.ɪk/ us
/dʒəˈner.ɪk/
a product, especially a drug, that is no longer owned or legally controlled by a particular company:
The biggest difference between the brand-name drugs and the generics is price.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Products & producers
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(Definition of generic from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

generic | American Dictionary

generic
adjective
us
/dʒəˈner·ɪk/
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relating to or shared by a whole group of similar things; not specific to any particular thing:
Jazz is a generic term for a wide range of different styles of music.
Generic also means not having a trademark:
a generic drug
generic
noun [ C ]
us
/dʒəˈner·ɪk/
a product, esp. a drug, that is no longer owned or legally controlled by a particular company:
The biggest difference between the brand-name drugs and the generics is price.
(Definition of generic from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

generic | Business English

generic
adjective
uk
/dʒəˈnerɪk/ us
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shared by, typical of, or relating to a whole group of similar things, rather than to any particular thing:
The new range of engines all had a generic problem with their fan blades.
MARKETING
generic products do not have a brand name and do not legally belong to a particular company, so any company can manufacture them:
The study found large variations in quality for both brand-name and generic drugs.
generic equivalents/versions Generic versions of the drugs would surely be cheaper.
generic goods/medications/products

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proprietary
(Definition of generic from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of generic

generic
For the sake of quality standards and efficiency, generic plans of care are formulated for patients that are not responsive to individual circumstances.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
We will observe, therefore, period, national, and object-specific (generic) styles depending on our focus.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Generic tasks as building blocks for knowledgebased systems: the diagnosis and routine design examples.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The report recommended that, in principle, economic analysis should be pursued for all pharmaceuticals, but only simple price comparisons should be undertaken for generic medicines.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Therefore, it is useful to automate a generic process using batchfiles.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
To summarise, the present study examines the distribution of generic utterances relative to non-generic utterances.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
At a most fundamental level, the work does not tell us whether generics are conceptually distinct from non-generic utterances.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Music teachers should acknowledge the many generic definitions of gifted and talented achievement, to which music education can contribute.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In the first we find the generic categories that most readers are likely to expect: potential, environment, motivation, anxiety, the brain, and medicine.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The species will be referred to by their generic names from hereon.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These, however, are presented 'impersonally', and not due specifically to the speaker, but rather are attributed to some generic or bureaucratic entity.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Recognising the generic trajectory is important in determining the dramatic intent of any piece following this scheme.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This value is based on three generic outpatient attendances.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Quite simply, the liberal state apparatus is a generic public interest system of administration.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
However, the relationships between rap and canzone d'autore, apart from this generic convergence in a vaguely defined oppositional youth culture, have still to be ascertained.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of generic?
 

Translations of generic

in Chinese (Traditional)
一般的，普通的，通用的, （藥物或商品）無專利的，未註冊的, （尤指藥品）無專利的，不受某一廠商控制的…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
一般的，普通的，通用的, （药物或商品）无专利的，未注册的, （尤指药品）无专利的，不受某一厂商控制的…
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in Spanish
genérico, genérico/ica [masculine-feminine]…
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in Portuguese
genérico, genérico/-ca…
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in more languages
in Turkish
in French
in Japanese
in Dutch
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Ukrainian
kümesel, genel, (ürün) genel adı olan…
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générique…
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一般的（いっぱんてき）な…
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generiek…
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rodový…
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fælles-, generisk…
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istilah umum…
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โดยทั่วไป, เกี่ยวกับจำพวก…
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chung cho cả loại…
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gatunkowy, niemarkowy, ogólny…
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sammanfattande, samlings-…
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generik…
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allgemein…
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generisk, felles-…
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загальний, родовий…
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