specific

English Online Dictionary. What means specific‎? What does specific mean?

English

Alternative forms

• specifick (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French specifique, from Late Latin specificus (“specific, particular”), from Latin speciēs (“kind”) + -ific.

Pronunciation

• (General American, UK) IPA^(key): /spəˈsɪf.ɪk/, /spɪˈsɪf.ɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪfɪk
• Hyphenation: spe‧cif‧ic
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /spɛkˈsi.fɪk/

Adjective

specific (comparative more specific, superlative most specific)

2. explicit or definite.
4. (bioscience, taxonomy) pertaining to a species, as a taxon or taxa at the rank of species.

   Hyponyms: monospecific, multispecific, oligospecific, paucispecific

   Holonyms: generic, familial

   Meronyms: infrasubspecific, infraspecific, subspecific
5. (sometimes in combination) special, distinctive or unique.
7. intended for, or applying to, a particular thing.
9. Serving to identify a particular thing (often a disease or condition), with little risk of mistaking something else for it.

   a highly specific test    specific and nonspecific symptoms

10. being a remedy for a particular disease on a deeper level, rather than just masking the symptoms
12. (immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen.
14. (physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
16. (physics) similarly referring to a value divided by any measure which acts to standardize it (e.g. thrust specific fuel consumption, referring to fuel consumption divided by thrust)
18. (physics) a measure compared with a standard reference value by division, to produce a ratio without unit or dimension (e.g. specific refractive index is a pure number, and is relative to that of air)

Synonyms

• (explicit, definite): express, monosemous, unambiguous; see also Thesaurus:explicit
• (special, distinctive or unique): singular; see also Thesaurus:unique
• (intended for a particular thing): peculiar, singular; see also Thesaurus:specific

Antonyms

• unspecific, nonspecific
• (antonym(s) of “intended for a particular thing”): broad, general, generic, universal; see also Thesaurus:generic

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• generic

Noun

specific (plural specifics)

1. A distinguishing attribute or quality.
2. A remedy for a specific disease or condition.
3. Specification
4. (in the plural) The details; particulars.
5. (toponymy) The distinguishing part of a toponym.

   Antonym: generic

Translations

References

Further reading

• “specific”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “specific”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “specific”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French spécifique.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /speˈt͡ʃi.fik/

Adjective

specific m or n (feminine singular specifică, masculine plural specifici, feminine and neuter plural specifice)

1. specific

   Antonym: nespecific

Declension

Related terms

• specificitate