Generalization is a process in database management systems (DBMS) where two or more lower-level entities are combined to form a higher-level entity that has some common attributes. It is a bottom-up approach where entities are clubbed or grouped together to represent a more generalized view. Generalization helps in improving the flexibility and reusability of the database.

For example, in a university database, the entities Faculty and Student can be generalized to create a higher-level entity Person, which has common attributes like Name, Phone, and Address.

Some key characteristics of generalization in DBMS include:

• Generalization follows the bottom-up approach.
• It simplifies the entities.
• Higher-level entities can also be combined with lower-level entities.

Generalization is often used in conjunction with other concepts like specialization and aggregation to minimize the complexity of designing a database model.