generalist

[ jen-er-uh-list ]

noun
  1. a person whose knowledge, aptitudes, and skills are applied to a field as a whole or to a variety of different fields (opposed to specialist).

Origin of generalist

1
First recorded in 1605–15; general + -ist

Words Nearby generalist

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use generalist in a sentence

  • Finally if there is anything left over we can explore the possibility of outsourcing the task to a specialist or generalist.

  • You could be a generalist—a poet/mollusk scientist/seafarer/surgeon.

    A.J. Jacobs: How I Write | Noah Charney | May 29, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Even more wistfully, he was a passionate generalist in a time in which our ideas and expertise have become more and more silo-ed.

    We Need More Moynihans | John Avlon | October 18, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • He can do more for you and knows more of your case in five minutes' observation than the generalist would in three months.

    Dollars and Sense | Col. Wm. C. Hunter
  • What we have said about the specialist we could repeat by taking the opposite of the question for the generalist.

    Dollars and Sense | Col. Wm. C. Hunter
  • Woe to the specialist who is not a pretty fair generalist, and woe to the generalist who is not also a bit of a specialist.

  • Make the generalist think of himself in connection with large movements.

    Analyzing Character | Katherine M. H. Blackford and Arthur Newcomb
  • Pleasure and recreation are the only things in which an individual should be a generalist.

    Dollars and Sense | Col. Wm. C. Hunter

British Dictionary definitions for generalist

generalist

/ (ˈdʒɛnərəlɪst, ˈdʒɛnrə-) /


noun
    • a person who is knowledgeable in many fields of study

    • (as modifier): a generalist profession

  1. ecology an organism able to utilize many food sources and therefore able to flourish in many habitats: Compare specialist (def. 3)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012