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Syllable division derived from spelling — this word is not in the pronouncing dictionary, so no phonetic transcription is shown rather than a guessed one.
specialise is a verb meaning "devote oneself to a special area of work". It carries 5 recorded senses.
devote oneself to a special area of work
“She specializes in honey bees”
“This baker specializes in French bread”
be specific about
“Could you please specify your criticism of my paper?”
suit to a special purpose
“specialize one's research”
“this kind of beak has become specialized in certain Galapagos finches”
become more focused on an area of activity or field of study
“She specializes in Near Eastern history”
evolve so as to lead to a new species or develop in a way most suited to the environment
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for specialise come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.