general

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Concerned with, applicable to, or affecting the whole or every member of a class or category.
• adjective Affecting or characteristic of the majority of those involved; prevalent.
• adjective Of or affecting the entire body.
• adjective Being usually the case; true or applicable in most instances but not all.
• adjective Not limited in scope, area, or application.
• adjective Not limited to or dealing with one class of things; diversified.
• adjective Involving only the main features rather than precise details.
• adjective Highest or superior in rank.
• noun A commissioned rank in the US Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that is above lieutenant general.
• noun One who holds this rank or a similar rank in another military organization.
• noun A general officer.
• noun A statement, principle, or fact that embraces or is applicable to the whole.
• noun General anesthesia.
• noun Archaic The public.
• idiom (in general) Generally.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Same as generally.
• To command as a general; marshal.
• Pertaining or applicable to or predicable of all objects of a given class, or all of a number of resembling individuals; universal within the limits of the class or group of things considered: as, a general law of nature; a statute general in its application; a general principle; a general idea; the general interest or safety of a nation; to labor for the general good.
• Pertaining or applicable to, or predicable or true of, many or most of a class indefinitely, but by implication not to every member of it without exception; common to the majority or an indefinite number, or to a large but indefinite extent; prevalent; usual; common: as, a general custom; to differ from the general opinion; hence, indefinite; vague; not precise: as, to evade a point by general statements.
• Comprising or pertaining to the whole; collective: opposed to partial: as, a general settlement of accounts; a general departure of guests; a general involucre (that is, one which subtends the whole inflorescence); also, pertaining to, predicable of, or occupied with a great variety of different objects having common characters.
• Pertaining to the main features of the object; regarded in the gross, with neglect of details and unimportant exceptions: as, his general attainments are excellent; a general survey.
• Having to do with all; public; common; vulgar.
• Not specifically limited in scope, operation, or function; not restricted to special details, particulars, or occasions: used of authority conferred, or of office or employment exercised: as, a general power of attorney; a general officer of the army; a general mechanic.
• noun That which is general or common to all of a given class or group; a general statement, principle, truth, etc.
• noun A genus or class embracing all objects having certain characters, and especially including species under it. Now only in the phrase in general (which see, below).
• noun Milit., an officer holding a general command (whence the title); the commander of an army, or of any organization of troops larger than a regiment: as an official title, used either alone for the highest or next to the highest rank, or with an adjunct designating the particular grade. See lieutenant-general, major-general, and brigadier-general.
• noun A particular beat of drum or march, being that which, in the morning, gives notice to infantry to be in readiness to march.
• noun Eccles., the chief of an order of monks or priests, or of all the houses or congregations established under the same rule: as, the general of the Dominicans, or of the Jesuits.
• noun The public; the community; the vulgar.
• noun Inclusively; without exception.
• noun In all things.
• noun In mathematics, in all cases except possibly in limiting cases or in case of some additional condition being fulfilled.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The whole; the total; that which comprehends or relates to all, or the chief part; -- opposed to particular.
• noun (Mil.) One of the chief military officers of a government or country; the commander of an army, of a body of men not less than a brigade. In European armies, the highest military rank next below field marshal.
• noun (Mil.) The roll of the drum which calls the troops together.
• noun (Eccl.) The chief of an order of monks, or of all the houses or congregations under the same rule.
• noun obsolete The public; the people; the vulgar.
• noun in the main; for the most part.
• adjective Relating to a genus or kind; pertaining to a whole class or order.
• adjective Comprehending many species or individuals; not special or particular; including all particulars.
• adjective Not restrained or limited to a precise import; not specific; vague; indefinite; lax in signification.
• adjective Common to many, or the greatest number; widely spread; prevalent; extensive, though not universal
• adjective Having a relation to all; common to the whole.
• adjective As a whole; in gross; for the most part.
• adjective Usual; common, on most occasions.
• adjective (Law) an agent whom a principal employs to transact all his business of a particular kind, or to act in his affairs generally.
• adjective See the Note under Assembly.
• adjective See under Average, Court.