1. All; extending to or comprehending the whole number, quantity or space; as universal ruin; universal good; universal benevolence.
The universal cause acts not by partial, but by general laws.
2. Total; whole.
From harmony, from heav'nly harmony, this universal frame began.
3. Comprising all the particulars; as universal kinds.
4. In botany, a universal umbel, is a primary or general umbel; the first or largest set of rays in a compound umbel; opposed to partial. A universal involucre is placed at the foot of a universal umbel.
Universal instrument, is one which measures all kinds of distances, lengths, _c.; as the pantometer or holometer.
Universal dial, is a dial by which the hour may be found by the sun in any part of the world, or under any elevation of the pole.
Universal proposition. [See The noun.]
UNIVERS'AL, n. [See The adjective.]
1. In logic, a universal is complex or incomplex. A complex universal, is either a universal proposition, as ""every whole is greater than its parts,"" or whatever raises a manifold conception in the mind, as the definition of a reasonable animal.
An incomplex universal, is what produces one conception only in the mind, and is a simple thing respecting many; as human nature, which relates to every individual in which it is found.
2. The whole; the general system of the universe. [Not in use.]
