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   Spe·cif·ic

   /spəˈsifik/

   

   adjective

   • 1. clearly defined or identified: "increasing the electricity supply only until it met specific development needs" Similar particularspecifiedcertainfixedsetdetermineddistinctseparatedefinitesingleindividualpeculiardiscreteexpresspreciseOpposite general
   • ▪ precise and clear in making statements or issuing instructions: "when ordering goods be specific" Similar exactaccurateprecisecorrecterror-freepinpointdetailedexplicitexpressclear-cutwell definedunambiguousunequivocalmeticulousclosestrictdefiniteOpposite vague
   • ▪ belonging or relating uniquely to a particular subject: "information needs are often very specific to companies and individuals"
   • 2. relating to or connected with species or a species: "the differences between them can only be on the specific level"
   • 3. (of a duty or a tax) levied at a fixed rate per physical unit of the thing taxed, regardless of its price.
   • 4. of or denoting a number equal to the ratio of the value of some property of a given substance to the value of the same property of some other substance used as a reference, such as water, or of a vacuum, under equivalent conditions: "specific dielectric strength"
   • ▪ of or denoting a physical quantity expressed in terms of a unit mass, volume, or other measure, in order to give a value independent of the properties or scale of the particular system studied: "specific conductance"

   noun

   • 1. a medicine or remedy effective in treating a particular disease or part of the body: dated "he grasped at the idea as though she had offered him a specific for cancer"
   • 2. a precise detail: "he worked through the specifics of the contract"

   Word Origin mid 17th century (originally in the sense ‘having a special determining quality’): from late Latin specificus, from Latin species (see species).

   Derivatives

   • 1. specificness noun

   Scrabble Points: 17

   • S

     1

   • P

     3

   • E

     1

   • C

     3

   • I

     1

   • F

     4

   • I

     1

   • C

     3

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