- an officer of very high rank in the army or (in the US) the air force; the officer with the highest rank in the marines
- a four-star general
- General Tom Parker
- Both generals had commanded units in that area.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- one-star
- two-star
- three-star
- …
- command something
- lead something
Word OriginMiddle English: via Old French from Latin generalis, from genus, gener- ‘class, race, kind’. The noun primarily denotes a person having overall authority: the sense ‘army commander’ is an abbreviation of captain general, from French capitaine général ‘commander-in-chief’.Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
general