Etimology
From Old French specifique, from Late Latin specificus (“specific, particular”), from Latin speciēs (“kind”) + faciō (“make”).
adjective
specific (comparative more specific, superlative most specific)
explicit or definite.
(bioscience, taxonomy) 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
(immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen.
(physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
(physics) 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)
(physics) 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)
Examples
Science and literature, then, are the two achievements of Homo sapiens that most convincingly justify the specific name.
Hyponyms: monospecific, multispecific, oligospecific, paucispecific
Coordinate terms: subspecific, infraspecific, generic, familial
a highly specific test, specific and nonspecific symptoms
Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.
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.
Related words
synonyms
(explicit, definite): express, monosemous, unambiguous; see also Thesaurus:explicit
(special, distinctive or unique): singular; see also Thesaurus:unique
(intended for a particular thing): peculiar, singular; see also Thesaurus:specific
antonyms
unspecific, nonspecific
(antonym(s) of "intended for a particular thing"): broad, general, generic, universal; see also Thesaurus:generic
hyponyms
application-specific
array-specific
browser-specific
client-specific
CLR-specific
company-specific
conspecific
container-specific
culture-specific
database-specific
discipline-specific
domain-specific
Eclipse-specific
flight-specific
gender-specific
HTTP-specific
infraspecific
interspecific
intraspecific
JSON-specific
MySQL-specific
osmospecific
OS-specific
platform-specific
problem-specific
program-specific
prostate-specific
recording-specific
serotonin-specific
server-specific
spaceflight-specific
species-specific
store-specific
task-specific
topic-specific
noun
specific (plural specifics)
A distinguishing attribute or quality.
A remedy for a specific disease or condition.
Specification
(in the plural) The details; particulars.
Examples
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.
I had no unreasonable fear of bats, […] yet I knew them too for carriers of the dread “Hydrophobia,” for which there was no specific.