specific

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • (US, UK) IPA(key): /spəˈsɪf.ɪk/, /spɪˈsɪf.ɪk/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Hyphenation: spe‧cif‧ic
  • Rhymes: -ɪfɪk

Adjective

specific (comparative more specific, superlative most specific)

  1. explicit or definite
  2. (sciences) Pertaining to a 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.
  3. (taxonomy) pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species
  4. special, distinctive or unique
  5. intended for, or applying to a particular thing
  6. being a remedy for a particular disease
    Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.
    • 1835, 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.
  7. (immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen
  8. (physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
  9. (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)
  10. (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)

Antonyms

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

Translations

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See also

Noun

specific (plural specifics)

  1. A distinguishing attribute or quality.
  2. A specific remedy.
    • 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.
  3. Specification
  4. (in the plural) The details; particulars.

Derived terms

Further reading

  • specific in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • specific in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • specific at OneLook Dictionary Search

Romanian

Etymology

French spécifique

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [speˈt͡ʃi.fik]

Adjective

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

  1. specific

Declension

Antonyms

  • nespecific
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