specific — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Explicit or definite.

   Examples

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   While some participants, like Gabi and Jasmine, had access to a gym but still felt uncertain about using specific types of equipment, others who trained at home faced even greater challenges due to the absence of both a coach and proper equipment.

2. Pertaining to a species, as a taxon or taxa at the rank of species.

   Examples

   Holonyms: generic, familial

   Meronyms: infrasubspecific, infraspecific, subspecific

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

3. Special, distinctive or unique.

   Usage

   • In compounds
   • sometimes

   Examples

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   A psychologist told WJLA TV that, for the most part, this isn’t a Cocomelon-specific issue. The main issue is too much screen time and children's shows with fast-paced sequences.

4. intended for, or applying to, a particular thing.

5. Serving to identify a particular thing (often a disease or condition), with little risk of mistaking something else for it.

   Examples

   a highly specific test

   specific and nonspecific symptoms

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

   Examples

   Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.

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   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.

   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. Limited to a particular antibody or antigen.

8. Of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy).

9. 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. 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).

Noun

1. A distinguishing attribute or quality.

2. A remedy for a specific disease or condition.

   Examples

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   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.

   If Burd Ellen had gone “widishins" round the church, she would, I think, have used the best homoeopathic specific against the Elf-King's power; for "to go widishins" was the chief element in elfin practices, and if mortals wished to resist or unspell elf-craft, they, too, had "to go widershins," or they had to repeat the Paternoster backwards, which came to the same thing, or do something else contrariwise.

   A compound of spurge, cardamom, cinnamon of Mecca, pellitory, ginger, nettle seed is an Arab specific for sexual weakness.

   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. The details; particulars.

   Usage

   • in-plural

5. The distinguishing part of a toponym.

   Antonyms

   generic

   Examples

   With the exception of names of pan-Canadian significance and some alternate forms approved by provincial authorities, the specific is not translated.

Adjective

1. (sometimes followed by ‘to’) applying to or characterized by or distinguishing something particular or special or unique

   Antonyms

   generalnonspecific

   Examples

   rules with specific application

   demands specific to the job

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   a specific and detailed account of the accident

2. stated explicitly or in detail

   Examples

   needed a specific amount

3. relating to or distinguishing or constituting a taxonomic species

   Examples

   specific characters

4. being or affecting a disease produced by a particular microorganism or condition; used also of stains or dyes used in making microscope slides

   Antonyms

   nonspecific

   Examples

   quinine is highly specific for malaria

   a specific remedy

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   a specific stain is one having a specific affinity for particular structural elements

Noun

1. a fact about some part (as opposed to general)

   Synonyms

   particular

   Antonyms

   general

   Broader terms

   fact

   Examples

   he always reasons from the particular to the general

2. a medicine that has a mitigating effect on a specific disease

   Broader terms

   medicinemedicationmedicamentmedicinal drug

   Examples

   quinine is a specific for malaria