specific

Meanings

Plural: specifics

Noun

• a fact about some part (as opposed to general)
• a medicine that has a mitigating effect on a specific disease
  • "quinine is a specific for malaria"
• A distinguishing attribute or quality.
• A remedy for a specific disease or condition.
• Specification
• The details; particulars.
• The distinguishing part of a toponym.

Adjective

• (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"

Adjective Satellite

• stated explicitly or in detail
  • "needed a specific amount"

Adj

• Explicit or definite.
• Pertaining to a species, as a taxon or taxa at the rank of species.
• Special, distinctive or unique.
• intended for, or applying to, a particular thing.
• Serving to identify a particular thing (often a disease or condition), with little risk of mistaking something else for it.
• Being a remedy for a particular disease on a deeper level, rather than just masking the symptoms
• Limited to a particular antibody or antigen.
• Of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy).
• 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)
• 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

concrete, discrete, explicit, express, individual, monosemous, particular, peculiar, proper, singular, specific, unambiguous, unique

Antonyms

all-purpose, broad, general, general-purpose, generic, gross, group-specific antigen, non-specific, nonspecific, overall, pandemic, specific activity, specific gravity bottle, universal, unspecific, widespread

Related Words

generic

Anagrams of specific