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specific Definition

spe·cific (spə sif′ik)

adjective

  1. limiting or limited; specifying or specified; precise; definite; explicit no specific plans
  2. of or constituting a species
  3. peculiar to or characteristic of something specific traits
  4. of a special, or particular, sort or kind
  5. Med.
    1. specially indicated as a cure for a particular disease a specific remedy
    2. produced by a particular microorganism a specific disease
  6. Physics designating a certain constant characteristic of a substance or phenomenon measured against some arbitrary, fixed standard of reference or expressed as an amount per unit area, unit volume, etc.

Etymology: LL specificus < L species (see species) + -ficus, -fic

noun

  1. something specially suited for a given use or purpose
  2. a specific cure or remedy
  3. a distinct item or detail; particular

specific Related Forms
spe·cif′i·cally adverb
specific Synonyms

specific

modif.

particular, distinct, precise, explicit; see definite 1, 2, special 1. See syn. study at explicit, special.

specific Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • know: Personally identifiable information This refers to information that lets us know the specifics of who you are.

Adjective modifier

  • subject: The first half should focus on your choice of course ( subject specific ).

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • want: Depends if you want info specific to France, clinical trials, general info or what.
  • include: This would not include staff specific to a Department, e.g. nurses or teachers.

Modifies a noun

  • requirement: There are no specific requirements for drilling rate etc for the seed we will be sent.
  • need: These questionnaires might also address the specific needs of people to which the parish could respond.
  • topic: Each newsgroup focuses on a specific topic, often of very narrow interest.
  • area: Her specific area of interest is in student support systems.
  • objective: Both are non-government, not-for-profit entities with a global remit to manage public research funding to deliver specific objectives.
  • question: I shall try now to answer some of the specific questions.

Modifying Another Word

  • culturally: Several culturally specific practical considerations should inform social work interventions with ethnic Arab peoples in Arab countries or in Western.. .
  • highly: The use of certain creatures for pollination can be highly specific.
  • very: God is not simply the God who is limited to a very specific area of life.
  • quite: This statement about G-d's saving covenant is quite specific to Judaism.
  • fairly: Most queries required a free-text search within an appropriate field, but the search terms tended to be fairly specific.
  • too: Perhaps this is the reason why Garrison preferred not to be too specific.

Noun used with modifier

  • something: If there's something specific you're looking for, use our search bar above.
  • species: However, weevils are generally ' species specific ' so, when the weed runs out, they die out.

Used with adjective complement

  • get: The objective view demands rethinking and you will please bear with me if I overview the subject before getting too specific.
  • develop: NCSL is in the process of developing specific learning materials for each of these groups.
specific Quotes

Il n'y a ni re'  gles ni mode'  les; ou pluto"  t il n'y a d'autres re'  gles que les lois ge¤  ne¤  rales de la nature qui planent sur l'art tout entier, et les lois spe¤  ciales qui, pour chaque composition, re¤  sultent des conditions d'existence propres a'   chaque sujet. There are no rules or models; that is, there are no rules except general laws of nature which hover over art and special laws which apply to specific subjects. 420

—Hugo,Victor Marie

   Never under the most despotic of infidel Governments did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country. And what are your remedies? After months of inaction, and months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes forth the grand specificöthe never-failing nostrum of all state physicians from the days of Draco to the present time; death. Is there not blood enough upon your penal code that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?

—Rochdale

The British, he thought, must be gluttons for satire: even the weather forecast seemed to be some kind of spoof, predicting every possible combination of weather for the next twenty-four hours without actually committing itself to anything specific.

—Lodge, David John

For me, as for most novelists, every genuine imaginative event begins down there, with the facts, with the specific, and not with the philosophical, theideological, or the abstract.

—Roth, Philip Milton