generic

adj

1. Very broad; pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific instances.

   “Capri pants can be a generic term for any cropped slim pants.”

   “[…] the essence is that such self-describing poets describe what is in them, but not peculiar to them, – what is generic, not what is special and individual.”

2. Lacking in precision, often in an evasive fashion; vague; imprecise.
3. Of a product or drug, not having a brand name; nonproprietary in design or contents; fungible with the rest of its class.

   “The four-and-one-half-day trial was centered on acts that neither she nor prosecutors dispute: On July 13, 2012, she drove her Lexus S.U.V. erratically after swallowing Zolpidem, a generic form of the sleep medication Ambien.”

4. Pertaining to genera of life instead of particular species thereof.

   “Holonym: familial”

   “Meronyms: infrasubspecific, infraspecific, subspecific, specific”

   “There are scores of generic names within the order Decapoda, which includes many sea creatures that are called shrimp.”

5. (nonstandard)Specifying neither masculine nor feminine; epicene; unisex.

   “Words like salesperson and firefighter are generic.”

   “This included criticism of the generic use of man to include men and women.”

6. Of a procedure, written so as to operate on any data type, the type required being passed as a parameter.
7. Of a point, having coordinates that are algebraically independent over the base field.
8. Relating to genre.

   “Both [films] test formal and generic boundaries.”

9. Having no distinguishing characteristics; unoriginal.

   “That movie was so generic; it was such a bore!”

noun

1. A product sold under a generic name.
2. A wine that is a combination of several wines, or made from a combination of several grape varieties.
3. A term that specifies neither male nor female.

   “[…]a male-centered perspective[…]has resulted in false generics in everyday life[…]”

4. The part of a toponym that identifies the feature's type.

   “Where the generic of an English-language place name has been translated into French, it is essential to restore it to its original English form when translating the French document into English.”