MEANING
1. Applying to, shared by, or extending across every member of a specified group or domain.
2. A general quality, concept, or pattern regarded as shared across every member of a class.
3. A proposition that affirms or denies something about every member of a specified class.
Use it for
claiming that a rule applies to every case; testing whether a pattern has exceptions; distinguishing complete coverage from broad prevalenceDistinguishes all-member claims from general patterns and from equipment designed for several uses. Academic functions: Significance / Scope, Argumentation, Theory / Conceptual Language.
Words that belong together
- universal access
- universal applicability
- universal claim
On the page
A universal claim about narrative structure requires attention to texts outside the critic’s preferred tradition.
The policy promised universal access, but the evaluation identified several groups it did not reach.
The anthropologist questions whether the proposed human universal survives comparison across diverse communities.
The philosopher contrasts particular objects with universals such as qualities that several objects can share.
The statement that every surveyed household pays rent is a universal within the surveyed class.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- universal
Usage notes
Adjective and count noun: universal, universals. The all-members adjective is normally non-gradable; more nearly universal is preferable when coverage is incomplete. A universal proposition is a noun phrase, not an additional headword. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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