General

Capitalization of general.

General (uncountable)

1. (military) The military officer title

Ellipsis of General Hospital

General

1. (informal, medicine) Short for General Hospital. or "X General Hospital" (where X is a stand-in for another part of the name), a common hospital name.

• enlarge, gleaner, reangle

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

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

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• Rhymes: -aːl

General m (genitive Generals or Generales, plural Generäle or Generale)

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.

• Brigadegeneral
• Generalfeldmarschall
• Generalität
• Generalleutnant
• Generalmajor
• Generaloberst
• Ordensgeneral

• General in Duden online