General was a high-level military rank, often denoting the commander of an army. It was widely used among the armed forces of both major galactic powers and more localized militaries.
Generals are typically senior officers posted to command ground troops, special operations forces, and starfighter commands. The rank normally didn't exist among spacefaring navies, where the comparable rank of Admiral was used instead. Specialized divisions within large fleet organizations, however (such as the integrated starfighter forces of the New Republic Defense Force), often retained the rank of General, while a minority of interstellar fleets, such as the Dornean navy, favored General in place of Admiral as the standard term for senior capital ship commanders. Some officers integrated into the command structure who hold a function similar to that of an admiral (such as former Senator Garm Bel Iblis) hold the rank of general instead, muddying the classification waters further.
Often, a military rank-hierarchy would contain a number of different grades of General, known collectively as general officers. The titles used were usually, though not always, variations on the basic rank of "General" (i.e. Brigadier or Major General), and officers holding such ranks could normally be addressed as "General" for brevity. A General was usually outranked by a Marshal, though some militaries used very different systems.