specific
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- specifick (obsolete)
EtymologyEdit
From Old French specifique, from Late Latin specificus (“specific, particular”), from Latin speciēs (“kind”) + faciō (“make”).
PronunciationEdit
- (General American, UK) IPA(key): /spəˈsɪf.ɪk/, /spɪˈsɪf.ɪk/
- Rhymes: -ɪfɪk
- Hyphenation: spe‧cif‧ic
Audio (US) (file)
AdjectiveEdit
specific (comparative more specific, superlative most specific)
- explicit or definite.
- (bioscience, taxonomy) pertaining to a species, as a taxon or taxa at the rank of species.
- 2008, Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, Oxford 2009, p. 3:
- Science and literature, then, are the two achievements of Homo sapiens that most convincingly justify the specific name.
- Hyponyms: monospecific, multispecific, oligospecific, paucispecific
- Coordinate terms: subspecific, infraspecific, generic, familial
- 2008, Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, Oxford 2009, p. 3:
- special, distinctive or unique.
- intended for, or applying to, a particular thing.
- 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
- being a remedy for a particular disease
- Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.
- 1830 May 23, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Specific Medicines”, in Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, volume I, London: J. Murray, page 147:
- The study of specific medicines is too much disregarded now. No doubt, the hunting after specifics is a mark of ignorance and weakness in medicine, yet the neglect of them is proof also of immaturity ; for, in fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of science.
- (immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen.
- (physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
- (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)
- (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)
SynonymsEdit
- (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
AntonymsEdit
- unspecific, nonspecific
- (intended for a particular thing): broad, general, generic, universal; see also Thesaurus:generic
HyponymsEdit
- application-specific
- array-specific
- browser-specific
- client-specific
- company-specific
- conspecific
- container-specific
- culture-specific
- database-specific
- domain-specific
- Eclipse-specific
- flight-specific
- gender-specific
- HTTP-specific
- infraspecific
- interspecific
- intraspecific
- JSON-specific
- MySQL-specific
- osmospecific
- OS-specific
- platform-specific
- problem-specific
- program-specific
- prostate-specific
- recording-specific
- serotonin-specific
- server-specific
- species-specific
- store-specific
- task-specific
- topic-specific
Derived termsEdit
- antiphosphospecific
- gender-specific
- prespecific
- specifically
- specific charge
- specific energy
- specific epithet
- specific fuel consumption
- specific gravity
- specific heat
- specific impulse
- specificity
- specificker
- specific name
- specific performance
- specific power
- specific resistance
- specific thrust
- specific weight
TranslationsEdit
explicit or definite
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of, or relating to a species
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pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species
special, distinctive or unique
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intended for, or applying to a particular thing
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being a remedy for a particular disease
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being limited to a particular antibody or antigen
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of a value divided by the mass
of a measure compared to a standard reference
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See alsoEdit
NounEdit
specific (plural specifics)
- A distinguishing attribute or quality.
- A remedy for a specific disease or condition.
- 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality, volume 3, page 201:
- Change of scene, and a new lover, are infallible specifics, always supposing there is no character for constancy to be supported: if I witness the violent sorrow of to-day, I impose upon to-morrow the necessity of being sorry also.
- 1968, Charles Portis, True Grit:
- I had no unreasonable fear of bats, […] yet I knew them too for carriers of the dread “Hydrophobia,” for which there was no specific.
- Specification
- (in the plural) The details; particulars.
TranslationsEdit
distinguishing attribute
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Further readingEdit
- “specific” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “specific” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- specific at OneLook Dictionary Search.
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
From French spécifique.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
specific m or n (feminine singular specifică, masculine plural specifici, feminine and neuter plural specifice)
- specific
- Antonym: nespecific
DeclensionEdit
Declension of specific
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | specific | specifică | specifici | specifice | ||
| definite | specificul | specifica | specificii | specificele | |||
| genitive/ dative |
indefinite | specific | specifice | specifici | specifice | ||
| definite | specificului | specificei | specificilor | specificelor | |||