universal

Adjective

• adapted to various purposes, sizes, forms, operations
  • universal wrench, universal chuck
    
  • universal screwdriver
    

• applicable to or common to all members of a group or set
  • the play opened to universal acclaim
    
  • rap enjoys universal appeal among teenage boys
    

• of worldwide scope or applicability
  • an issue of cosmopolitan import
    
  • the shrewdest political and ecumenical comment of our time- Christopher Morley
    
  • universal experience
    

Noun

• coupling that connects two rotating shafts allowing freedom of movement in all directions
  • in motor vehicles a universal joint allows the driveshaft to move up and down as the vehicle passes over bumps
    

• a behavioral convention or pattern characteristic of all members of a particular culture or of all human beings
  • some form of religion seems to be a human universal
    

• (logic) a proposition that asserts something of all members of a class

• (linguistics) a grammatical rule (or other linguistic feature) that is found in all languages

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  cosmopolitan , ecumenical , oecumenical , general , worldwide , world-wide , universal joint , universal proposition , linguistic universal
• Antonyms: 
  particular , particular proposition