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say it: spuh-SIF-ik
specific is an adjective and noun meaning "(sometimes followed by `to') applying to or characterized by or distinguishing something particular or special or unique". It carries 6 recorded senses.
(sometimes followed by `to') applying to or characterized by or distinguishing something particular or special or unique
“rules with specific application”
“demands specific to the job”
“a specific and detailed account of the accident”
relating to or distinguishing or constituting a taxonomic species
“specific characters”
being or affecting a disease produced by a particular microorganism or condition; used also of stains or dyes used in making microscope slides
“quinine is highly specific for malaria”
“a specific remedy”
“a specific stain is one having a specific affinity for particular structural elements”
medicine · pathology
a fact about some part (as opposed to general)
“he always reasons from the particular to the general”
a medicine that has a mitigating effect on a specific disease
“quinine is a specific for malaria”
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 specific come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.