General

• Gen., Gen, Genl, Gen'l

General (plural Generals)

1. Alternative letter-case form of general in its various senses.

   You're going to have to tell that to the president yourself, General.

   • 1893, William M[ecklenburg] Polk, “The Kentucky Campaign”, in Leonidas Polk, Bishop and General, volume II, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. and New York: […], page 158:

     General Polk stated, with all respect to General Bragg’s great abilities in the direction of organization and discipline, that he had been wanting in the higher elements of generalship in the conduct of the campaign; and that, in view of the admitted possibilities of the campaign, he considered it a failure—an opinion, he said, he believed Generals Smith and Hardee shared with him. He further said that General Bragg had lost the confidence of his generals, and, in answer to a suggestion from the President of a change of commanders, requested that General Joseph E. Johnston should be assigned to the command of the army, if a change were made.

General

1. (informal, medicine) Short for General Hospital.

   The ambulance is taking him to General.
   Owerri West General Hospital or Owerri North? Obinze is still in charge of West General. If it's that one, turn it around now.

• enlarge, gleaner, reangle

Partly via Middle High German general, partly via French général, from Latin generālis.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɡe(ː).nəˈʁaːl/ (standard)
• IPA^(key): /ˌɡɛ.nəˈʁaːl/ (alternative in common speech)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

General m (strong, genitive Generales or Generals, plural Generäle or Generale, feminine Generälin or Generalin)

1. (military) general (officer in any general rank)
2. (military) general (officer in a specific general rank, usually the highest)
3. (Roman Catholicism) general (head of an order)

• The two military senses exist alongside each other. In the German Bundeswehr, all army and air-force officers above the rank of colonel (Oberst) are referred to as Generale and each of them is addressed as Herr General. At the same time, General is a specific rank, namely the highest existing rank, typically held by the inspector general and at most one or two other generals.
• The plural is Generale in the Bundeswehr’s official terminology, but more commonly Generäle otherwise. Singular forms with -e- (des Generales, dem Generale) are exceedingly rare.

• → Bulgarian: генера́л (generál)
• → Russian: генера́л (generál) (see there for further descendants)
• → Serbo-Croatian: general, генерал
• → Slovene: general
• → Swedish: general
  • → Finnish: kenraali

• “General” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “General” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “General” in Duden online
• General on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de