general-purpose

adjective

gen·​er·​al-pur·​pose ˈjen-rəl-ˈpər-pəs How to pronounce general-purpose (audio)
ˈje-nə-
: suitable to be used for two or more basic purposes

Examples of general-purpose in a Sentence

a general-purpose glue for routine household repairs
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The general-purpose robot is claimed to be more effective than a humanoid. Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 17 Sep. 2025 Founded in 2022, Figure aims to build general-purpose humanoid robots, though Fortune’s Jason del Rey questioned whether the company was exaggerating the extent to which its robots were being deployed with BMW. Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2025 This motivates our proposal of a modular explainable AI agent (XAI agent) that's powered by banking domain-specific LLMs rather than general-purpose models. Ravi Gedela, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025 Frontier models mean AIs that are trained on broad datasets, with general-purpose applications, for example, ChatGPT or Google Gemini, rather than a niche mobile app. PC Magazine, 14 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for general-purpose

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of general-purpose was in 1894

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Cite this Entry

“General-purpose.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/general-purpose. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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