universal

comparative more universal · superlative most universal

1. Of or pertaining to the universe.
2. Common to all members of a group or class.

   I had been planning every day through these years toward a universal car.

   1922, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther, chapter 4, in My Life and Work, Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., →OCLC

   3 more examples

   In Logic, the letter A is used as a symbol for the universal affirmative proposition in the general form "all x is y."

   1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

   Eventually, the railway opened on Monday, December 14, 1896, with a universal fare of 1d. collected at the turnstiles, and conditions were immediately chaotic, as many passengers travelled round and round, and refused to leave the cars.

   1955 January, Charles E. Lee, “The Glasgow Underground Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 24

   Sutton SignWriting is the universal and complete solution for written sign language, ISO 15924 script code "Sgnw".

   2022 January 30, Steve Slevinski, “Formal SignWriting”, in IETF, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2024

   Synonyms: general

3. Common to all society; worldwide, global.

   She achieved universal fame.

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   [John] Dryden's univerſal genius, his firmly eſtablished reputation, and the glory his memory muſt always reflect upon the nation that gave him birth, make us ardently wiſh for a more accurate life of him than any which has hitherto appeared: […]

   a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Life of John Dryden, Esq.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume I, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page xiii

   First there is no universal sizing system for carving tools. Seemingly every brand and country of manufacture uses a different system.

   2026 August 28, Shea Alexander, “Basic Relief Carving Techniques”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 27

4. Unlimited; vast; infinite.

   Playwrights have recognized the usefulness of this archetype and used him in many dramatic contexts, for the Trickster's freedom from determination gives him a universal fascination.

   1983, Wendy Griswold, “The Devil's Techniques: Cultural Legitimation and Social Change”, in American Sociological Review, volume 48, number 5, page 670a of 668–680

5. Useful for many purposes; all-purpose.

   universal wrench

   Synonyms: general-purpose, multi-purpose

plural universals

1. in pluraloftenhuman sciencesA characteristic or property that particular things have in common.

   But these are universals, not confined / To any one time, place, or human kind.

   1942, Robert Frost, “The Lesson for Today”, in The Poems of Robert Frost: […], New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published 1946, →OCLC, page 406

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   When we examine common words, we find that, broadly speaking, proper names stand for particulars, while other substantives, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs stand for universals.

   1912, Bertrand Russel, The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter 9

   We might also distinguish those expressions which are used to refer to individuals or particulars from those which are used to refer to what philosophers have called universals: e.g., to distinguish such expressions as "Everest" and "this chair" from "the number three", "the color red" and "drunkenness".

   1970, John R. Searle, Speech acts

   Empiricism was similarly a response to this loss of universals—a radically contingent world with no underlying order must constantly be studied and tested—and made God himself unnecessary: divine spirit and human spirit were alien enough to each other that they could function without taking each other into account.

   2021, Meghan O'Gieblyn, chapter 11, in God, Human, Animal, Machine […] , →ISBN

2. human sciencesA pattern that occurs systematically across natural languages.