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• n  an idea or conclusion having general application
• n  the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances
• n  reasoning from detailed facts to general principles
• n  (psychology) transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus

• Such a generalisation would never be made by any reasonable thinker who had something of worth to contribute.

• generalization
• generality
• abstraction
• induction
• inductive reasoning
• stimulus generalization
• stimulus generalisation

Quotes

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• Vera Baird in Melbourne Herald Sun
  I do not know what she is talking about, women hating women. This is a vast generalisation based on nothing, but unfortunately it is likely to have a deterrent effect,Ms Baird told The Daily Mail.
• Andrew Hilditch in CricInfo.com
  It's far too much of a generalisation to say the side was too old,Hilditch told the Australian. "The facts are we had some key players not scoring runs at critical times and that can happen."
• Shabana Azmi in Hindustan Times
  I don't want to hold a torch for terrorists, but Azamgarh has been a place of heroic intellectual struggles and a nerve centre of communist thinkers. This [the terror tag] is a sad generalisation,Shabana said.