specific

Plural: specifics

Noun

• A remedy or treatment intended for a particular disease or condition.
• 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).

Examples

• a highly specific test    specific and nonspecific symptoms
• 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.
• He had a SPECIFIC strategy for each opponent, tailored to their playing style.
• Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

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

Related Words

generic

Anagrams of specific