Definition of "universal" []

• Of, relating to, extending to, or affecting the entire world or all within the world; worldwide: "This discovery of literature has as yet only partially penetrated the universal consciousness” ( Ellen Key). (adjective)
• Including, relating to, or affecting all members of the class or group under consideration: the universal skepticism of philosophers. See Synonyms at general. (adjective)
• Applicable or common to all purposes, conditions, or situations: a universal remedy. (adjective)
• Of or relating to the universe or cosmos; cosmic. (adjective)
• Knowledgeable about or constituting all or many subjects; comprehensively broad. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I trust we may come to that unity of mankind of which he speaks, and of universal peace which our friend Richard Cobden considers as very near at hand; if, however, the red benefactors of mankind at Paris get the upper hand, _universal war_ will be the order of the day."
• "But if this education were universal to the whole tribe, no man would have an advantage superior to the others; the knowledge they would have acquired being shared by all, would leave all as they now are, hewers of wood and drawers of water: the principle of individual hope, which springs from knowledge, would soon be baffled by the vast competition that _universal_ knowledge would produce."
• "These assertions are universal: I say, in the full sense, _universal_."