specific

English

Alternative forms

• specifick (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (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

   Coordinate terms: subspecific, infraspecific, generic, familial

   • 2008, Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, Oxford, published 2009, page 3:

     Science and literature, then, are the two achievements of Homo sapiens that most convincingly justify the specific name.

6. special, distinctive or unique.
8. intended for, or applying to, a particular thing.
10. 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

11. being a remedy for a particular disease on a deeper level, rather than just masking the symptoms

    Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.

    Any improvement in secondary sciatica is probably due to the analgesic action of the sodium salicylate, but in primary sciatica, in all likelihood “rheumatic,” the effect of the sodium salicylate appears to be specific rather than symptomatic.

    • 1830 May 23, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Constitutional and Functional Life—Hysteria—Hydro-carbonic Gas—Bitters and Tonics—Specific Medicines”, in H[enry] N[elson] C[oleridge], editor, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published 1835, →OCLC, 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.

13. (immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen.
15. (physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
17. (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)
19. (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

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• all-purpose
• era-specific
• general-purpose
• gross
• group-specific antigen
• non-specific
• nonspecific
• overall
• pandemic
• specific activity
• specific gravity bottle
• widespread

 

Hyponyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• application-specific
• array-specific
• browser-specific
• client-specific
• CLR-specific
• company-specific
• conspecific
• container-specific
• culture-specific
• database-specific
• discipline-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
• spaceflight-specific
• species-specific
• store-specific
• task-specific
• topic-specific

 

Derived terms

• allospecific
• antiphosphospecific
• aspecific
• biospecific
• bispecific
• cardiospecific
• chemospecific
• chirospecific
• cospecific
• domain-specific language
• donor-specific antibody
• ecospecific
• enantiospecific
• ethnospecific
• extraspecific
• gender-specific
• geospecific
• haplospecific
• hepatospecific
• heterospecific
• homospecific
• hyperspecific
• idiospecific
• immunospecific
• inspecific
• isospecific
• JVM-specific
• nanospecific
• neurospecific
• nothospecific
• organospecific
• osteospecific
• overspecific
• panspecific
• paraspecific
• phosphospecific
• plurispecific
• polyspecific
• prespecific
• prostate-specific antigen
• quadrispecific
• regiospecific
• semispecific
• serospecific
• serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor
• specifical
• specifically
• specificate
• specific charge
• specific contract
• specific density
• specific energy
• specific epithet
• specific fuel consumption
• specific gravity
• specific heat
• specific heat capacity
• specific humidity
• specific impulse
• specificity
• specificize
• specificker
• specific language impairment
• specific leaf area
• specific name
• specificness
• specific performance
• specific phobia
• specific power
• specific resistance
• specific risk
• specific rotation
• specific thrust
• specific volume
• specific weight
• stereospecific
• superspecific
• supraspecific
• thermospecific
• transspecific
• trispecific
• ultraspecific
• underspecific
• unispecific
• xenospecific

 

Translations

explicit or definite

• Afrikaans: spesifiek (af)
• Asturian: específicu
• Bulgarian: специфи́чен (bg) (specifíčen), определе́н (bg) (opredelén)
• Catalan: específic (ca)
• Czech: konkrétní (cs)
• Dutch: specifiek (nl)
• Esperanto: specifa
• Estonian: kindel (et)
• Finnish: erityinen (fi), tietty (fi)
• Galician: específico (gl)
• German: spezifisch (de)
• Greek: συγκεκριμένος (el) (sygkekriménos)
• Hebrew: מסוים (m’suyam)
• Hungarian: konkrét (hu), specifikus (hu)
• Indonesian: spesifik (id)
• Italian: specifico (it)
• Japanese: 特定 (ja) (とくてい, tokutei), 具体的 (ja) (ぐたいてき, gutaiteki)
• Latin: specialis
• Maori: tauwhāiti, tautohu
• Occitan: especific (oc)
• Polish: konkretny (pl)
• Portuguese: específico (pt)
• Romanian: specific (ro)
• Russian: я́вный (ru) (jávnyj) (obvious, explicit), конкре́тный (ru) (konkrétnyj) (concrete), специфи́ческий (ru) (specifíčeskij)
• Sinhalese: නිශ්චිත (niścita)
• Spanish: específico (es)
• Swedish: specifik (sv)
• Tibetan: བྱེ་བྲག (bye brag)
• Ukrainian: конкре́тний (konkrétnyj), специфі́чний (specyfíčnyj)
• Welsh: penodol (cy)

of, or relating to a species

• Bulgarian: ви́дов (vídov)
• Catalan: específic (ca)
• Finnish: laji- (fi), lajityyppinen
• Portuguese: específico (pt)
• Russian: видово́й (ru) (vidovój)

pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species

• Catalan: específic (ca)
• Finnish: laji- (fi)
• Portuguese: específico (pt)

special, distinctive or unique

• Bulgarian: специфи́чен (bg) (specifíčen), осо́бен (bg) (osóben)
• Catalan: específic (ca)
• Czech: specifický (cs)
• Estonian: eriline (et)
• Finnish: erityinen (fi)
• Greek: ειδικός (el) (eidikós)
• Indonesian: spesifik (id)
• Italian: particolare (it)
• Maori: tauwhāiti
• Polish: specyficzny (pl), osobliwy (pl)
• Russian: осо́бенный (ru) (osóbennyj), осо́бый (ru) (osóbyj), конкре́тный (ru) (konkrétnyj)
• Ukrainian: особли́вий (osoblývyj), конкре́тний (konkrétnyj)

intended for, or applying to a particular thing

• Bulgarian: специфи́чен (bg) (specifíčen), характе́рен (bg) (haraktéren)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: specifický (cs)
• Estonian: omane
• Finnish: erityinen (fi), erikois- (fi)
• German: spezifisch (de)
• Greek: ειδικός (el) (eidikós), εξειδικευμένος (el) (exeidikevménos)
• Italian: peculiare (it), specifico (it)
• Portuguese: específico (pt)
• Romanian: specific (ro)
• Russian: специа́льный (ru) (speciálʹnyj)
• Ukrainian: спеціа́льний (uk) (speciálʹnyj)

being a remedy for a particular disease

• Catalan: específic (ca)
• Finnish: spesifinen (fi)
• Portuguese: específico (pt)
• Spanish: específico (es)

being limited to a particular antibody or antigen

• Finnish: spesifinen (fi)
• Italian: specifico (it)

of a value divided by the mass

• Bulgarian: специфичен (bg) (specifičen)
• Czech: specifický (cs)
• Estonian: eri-
• Finnish: ominais- (fi)
• Georgian: კუთრი (ḳutri)
• Hungarian: fajlagos (hu)
• Italian: specifico (it)
• Russian: удельный (ru) (udelʹnyj)

of a measure compared to a standard reference

• Czech: relativní (cs)
• Finnish: ominais- (fi)
• Russian: относительный (ru) (otnositelʹnyj)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} مُعَيِّن (muʕayyin)
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} specifiek (nl)
• French: ^{(please verify)} spécifique (fr)
• Galician: ^{(please verify)} específico (gl)
• German: ^{(please verify)} spezifisch (de)
• Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} sajátos (hu), ^{(please verify)} meghatározott (hu)
• Irish: ^{(please verify)} sonrach
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} specifico (it)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 特殊 (ja) (とくしゅ, tokushu)
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 특정한 (teukjeonghan)
• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 特定的 (zh) (tèdìng de)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} specifik (sv)

See also

• generic

Noun

specific (plural specifics)

1. A distinguishing attribute or quality.
2. A remedy for a specific disease or condition.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, 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.

3. Specification
4. (in the plural) The details; particulars.

Translations

distinguishing attribute

• Finnish: erityispiirre, ominaispiirre (fi)
• German: Spezifik f, Spezifikum (de) n, Besonderheit (de) f
• Romanian: specific (ro) n

Further reading

• “specific”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “specific”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →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

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	specificelor	specificilor

Related terms

• specificitate