Skip to content
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

generic

/dʒəˈnɛɹɪk/

Press play to hear how to pronounce generic.

American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
Watch on YouTube ↗
LISTEN FOR THIS

Make the second syllable stand out.

Begin with the j sound in job and a light vowel. The next vowel, as in bed, has the main stress; the last ik stays lighter.

3 syllables · Stress on syllable 2

TRY SAYING
The packaging uses a generic design.

APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

What does generic mean?

adjective

  1. Very broad; pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific instances.
  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.
More meanings (10)

adjective

  1. Pertaining to genera of life instead of particular species thereof.
  2. Specifying neither masculine nor feminine; epicene; unisex.
  3. Of a procedure, written so as to operate on any data type, the type required being passed as a parameter.
  4. Of a point, having coordinates that are algebraically independent over the base field.
  5. Relating to genre.
  6. Having no distinguishing characteristics; unoriginal.

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

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/dʒəˈnɛɹɪk/

Pronunciation used in the listening tip.

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Hooker's view was that sinking islands "contain comparatively fewer species and fewer peculiar generic types than those which are rising."
Charles DarwinMore Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished LettersProject Gutenberg ebook #2739
Moreover, the name has been driven home with such effect that it is regarded as the generic term for all German airships.
Frederick Arthur Ambrose TalbotAeroplanes and Dirigibles of WarProject Gutenberg ebook #793
More book examples (3)
Our English workmen screw the earthenware insulators on the posts, strain the wire, and order Arabs about by the generic term of Johnny.
Robert Louis StevensonMemoir of Fleeming JenkinProject Gutenberg ebook #698
As regards its generic features, this spiritual attitude or theory of life is in the last analysis reducible to terms of a prevalent type of character.
Thorstein VeblenThe Theory of the Leisure ClassProject Gutenberg ebook #833
A sort of generic or Pantheistic vitality seemed to lurk in their very joints and bones, after what might be called the individual life had departed.
Herman MelvilleMoby Dick; Or, The WhaleProject Gutenberg ebook #2701