umbrella term

American

[uhm-brel-uh turm] / ʌmˈbrɛl ə ˌtɜrm /

noun

a word or phrase used as a unifying term under which a group of specific and related things, words, phrases, subjects, or functions belongs.

To be clear, “encephalopathy” is an umbrella term for any brain disease, and we’re testing to find out exactly what condition you may have.
The umbrella term “trans” includes both binary and nonbinary transgender people, as well as those who are genderqueer in other ways.

Etymology

Origin of umbrella term

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Such quick meals, often categorized under the umbrella term “lazy cooking,” have taken social media by storm, with several food content creators sharing their go-to lazy recipes.

From Salon

Which leads us to the third trajectory, dementia, a broad umbrella term that encapsulates several diseases with different symptoms depending on which part of the brain is affected.

From Slate

While it’s a broad umbrella term, a lot of the focus surrounds housing costs.

From MarketWatch

For those who are unaware, dementia is an umbrella term covering as many as 100 diseases that could cause symptoms consistent with cognitive decline.

From MarketWatch

Like the climate crisis or the crisis of democratic legitimacy, the affordability crisis has become an umbrella term for countless loosely connected phenomena.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023