universal

In philosophy, a property that is instantiated by all the individual things of a specific class: for example, all red things instantiate ‘redness’. Many philosophical debates have centred on the status of universals, including the medieval debate between nominalism and realism.

Universal

Hollywood film studio founded in 1915 by Carl Laemmle (1867-1939). In the 1950s the studio re-emerged as Universal International with a series of romantic comedies with such stars as Rock Hudson and Doris Day. In the 1970s and 1980s Universal became one of the industry's leaders, with box-office hits from the producer and director Steven Spielberg.

Despite the success of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the changeover to sound caused a decline in the studio's fortunes, apart from such classic horror movies as Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), and The Mummy (1932).