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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
specific
I.adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a specific aim (=an exact aim)
▪ What are the specific aims of the course?
a specific inquiry
▪ His job is to answer specific inquiries by individuals or groups.
a specific objective
▪ Most classroom activities have a specific learning objective.
a specific/concrete proposal
▪ The report will make specific proposals for further investigation.
a specific/direct/explicit reference (=mentioning something specifically/directly etc)
▪ No specific reference was made to the race of the children.
a specific/particular purpose
▪ Training is the acquisition of knowledge and skills for a specific purpose.
precise/specific/exact
▪ The term ‘stress’ has a precise meaning to an engineer.
specific gravity
specific/detailed recommendations
▪ We made a large number of specific recommendations for improving women’s mental health.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
highly
▪ Where psychology does produce theories, they are highly specific to particular debates.
▪ This is the basis of a highly specific method for the measurement of blood glucose.
▪ There was much use of natural materials, and craftsmen expected like medieval masons to be given general rather than highly specific directions.
▪ These cowards practice randomness in highly specific places.
▪ Fourth thesis: Higher education is open whereas research is closed Research is highly specific.
▪ Inpart, this is because of the shortcomings of that highly specific subject framework.
▪ This provides strong evidence that the hybridization signals obtained are highly specific and due to the transfected plasmid.
▪ The name can convey a highly specific meaning or less than nothing, depending on your audience.
more
▪ As well as this broader-based analysis, there are more specific historical pieces included in the collection.
▪ For more specific figures, call your local electric company.
▪ There is, however, also a more specific reason for considering Oakeshott's modes of experience.
▪ She would not be more specific.
▪ A more specific example of how the culture of work profoundly influences the industrial worker is around the issue of assessment.
▪ Here is a more specific example.
▪ But Sitthi had a more specific brief.
▪ He was unable to provide more specific plans.
very
▪ Nothing drastic or even very specific was proposed.
▪ I had a very specific question in mind.
▪ They simply tell us that some one has some very specific desires, aches and pains.
▪ The statement of purpose should open with one statement followed by several shorter very specific statements of purpose.
▪ Bourdieu's second criticism of Lévi-Strauss is that he misses the very specific nature of the exercise of power in traditional societies.
▪ Damage to a small area occasionally leaves a person normal except for a very specific deficit.
▪ You seem to have very specific ideas about what those are.
▪ Yes, if your child is older than that, but only if you have provided very specific guidelines.
■ NOUN
area
▪ The study of social policy particularly hives off a specific area of social activity in a way that must violate subject boundaries.
▪ Another solution has been to designate specific areas for jet ski use while banning them elsewhere.
▪ And, because local providers serve only a specific area, they may offer better, faster connections for customers.
▪ It also meant that Contact was allotted a specific area in each centre and that generally group members stayed within it.
▪ Yet the focus of urban policy on specific areas has regularly reproduced these contradictions in microcosm.
▪ The association is divided into seven sections which relate to specific areas of security.
▪ Examination of a number of specific areas demonstrates that law has contributed positively to commercial activity.
case
▪ Criticism has not always been related to specific cases.
▪ Let us see how this works in a specific case.
▪ Except in very specific cases Sidonius's attitudes and style encourage the reader to see continuity where there may have been disruption.
▪ But he said the specific cases did help his staff realize what kinds of establishments were not covered by the 1998 ordinance.
▪ As with other details these might vary in specific cases, but a typical cannon has a value as shown here.
▪ The figures have greater impact when demographers get down to specific cases.
▪ In the specific case of the Saturn V, the three stages performed as detailed in the table below.
▪ Family services officials refused Sunday to comment on the incident, citing state confidentiality laws that preclude them from discussing specific cases.
example
▪ Using a specific example, show how opinion leaders might be identified and influenced through a marketing strategy.
▪ There is an inherent problem in citing specific examples of such questions, however.
▪ I shall build up to this point using a specific example which is the other main theme of this chapter.
▪ Here is a more specific example.
▪ It is almost invidious to single out specific examples of success.
▪ This type of analysis is best illustrated by the following specific example.
▪ Those consequences have been highlighted by my hon. Friend with specific examples from industries within his constituency.
▪ Other hon. Members have given specific examples of their constituents.
form
▪ This is a specific form of market failure, since the market left to its own devices does not give sufficient knowledge.
▪ A more precise determination can be made only by analysis of specific forms of prayer.
▪ In Garrett's model, the specific form of a sentence is represented at positional-level, which is generated from functional-level representation.
▪ Expressions of indebtedness for specific forms of assistance are noted at appropriate points in the text.
▪ This may help to explain why we refer to this type of game as a specific form of group dynamics.
▪ In its least specific form there is a nondescript clumsiness of gait.
▪ The derivation of the specific form need not concern us.
▪ What specific forms, one must ask, does this organization take?
group
▪ It is much easier to keep a reliable record if you concentrate on 3 or 4 rugs from specific groups.
▪ It's not relegated to a specific group.
▪ One is saying something about men in the plural, but no specific group of men is intended either.
▪ Detailing the study of specific groups provides a focus for research components and presents a more coherent view of research efforts.
▪ Demography and population Few studies of the nineteenth-century migration process have concentrated on the detailed longitudinal analysis of specific groups of migrants.
▪ Algae can be fought by removing the causes of development of the specific groups.
▪ Any differences in institutional developments as they apply to specific groups. 4.
▪ Price supports for farmers and minimum-wage legislation are illustrations of government price fixing designed to raise the incomes of specific groups.
information
▪ Investigation is an active but fairly informal search for specific information.
▪ This is useful for having your browser remember some specific information which the Web server can later retrieve.
▪ Research is an active and formally organised search for specific information for a specific purpose.
▪ One is to maintain a product focus, offering specific information about each item.
▪ The search for general information is more difficult than the search for specific information because all directions are relevant.
▪ You want an overall structure to a topic as well as specific information.
▪ Create a list of specific information that belongs in the document.
instruction
▪ An instinct involves not only the impulse to do something, but also specific instructions on how to do it.
▪ The patient is not given any specific instruction.
▪ The book gives fairly specific instructions to make choices in order to simply.
▪ These examples show clearly that the human genetic code does not contain specific instructions to behave in a particular way.
▪ Get detailed and specific instructions on planting.
▪ It may be run at other time during the working day on specific instruction.
▪ Barak gave specific instructions that I was to go in alone.
issue
▪ There is unlikely to be a consensus definition of the boundaries between background knowledge and the specific issues addressed in individual papers.
▪ Jones said the president will not only have more say over bills but more power to focus public attention on specific issues.
▪ Other issues such as education may be resolved by a specific issue or prohibited steps order also made under s8.
▪ It just means that we have settled our claims on these specific issues.
▪ In the case of structure practice, for example, more specific issues might be: Are meaningful drills possible?
▪ Inquiries regarding specific issues should be directed to the paying agent or, if none is listed, the issuer.
▪ My concern is to address a different and very specific issue.
▪ Minor disputes over specific issues blew up into major confrontations.
need
▪ These examples are in addition to tasks such as mobilising and creating resources to meet specific needs.
▪ The generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.
▪ Language training to suit specific needs 2.
▪ They have similar Uvalues to triple glazing and good solar control properties which can be modified to suit specific needs.
▪ Your local Crime Prevention Officer can advise you on the best type to buy to suit your specific needs.
▪ With regard to the specific needs of secondary schools, however, the situation was necessarily more complex.
▪ This data helps the zoo provide the best environment possible for the animal and to accommodate all of its specific needs.
objective
▪ Chapter 2 identified the five specific objectives of the project: 1.
▪ What we have just witnessed is the importance of having a very specific objective.
▪ Again, however, a specific objective needs to be established and a suitable tax instrument selected.
▪ Disobedience has to be organized, and it has to have both a specific target and a specific objective.
▪ Decisions about the effectiveness and appropriateness of different behaviours can only be made within the context of particular situations and specific objectives.
▪ The specific objective of this paper is to show that these children have the worst mortality record of any social group.
▪ A Directive binds member states to certain specific objectives, but leaves them to implement the necessary measures through national laws.
▪ However, at the classroom level there may be specific objectives set for a particular session or activity.
performance
▪ An order for specific performance was granted since damages would not have been an adequate remedy.
▪ Indeed, without specific performance consequences, most of us quickly grow cynical.
▪ The basic combination of attitude and power produces a specific performance.
▪ You can not learn team performance without being part of a team that holds itself mutually accountable for achieving specific performance goals.
▪ It is open for most of the year, but you need to book well in advance for any specific performance.
▪ Use both / and goals that translate across all four levels from purpose to specific performance.
▪ The range offers cabinets tailored to specific performance requirements but without excessive performance reserves and complex control systems.
▪ No one demanded that people commit to specific performance challenges requiring them to use what they had supposedly learned.
problem
▪ Nevertheless the specific problems and prospects of the churches' own media need to be studied in greater depth.
▪ Where the goal is the solution of a specific problem, it makes sense to move in whatever directions seem most promising.
▪ In this situation the salesperson should question the nature of the objection in order to clarify the specific problem at hand.
▪ The ability to coordinate several activities at once and to quickly analyze and resolve specific problems is important.
▪ The climate and geography created specific problems and, as in Orkney, there was a 7 to 8 month winter.
▪ For each country will have specific problems related to its own social, political and economic structure.
▪ Their conversations with their bosses were generally very task-oriented and usually focused on a specific problem.
project
▪ In addition to stimulating specific projects, a research centre for solar energy is due to be established.
▪ Until now, debate has focused on the merits of putting specific projects such as the stadium expansion on the ballot.
▪ From time to time other sections may be needed but lists can be made up as and when they are required for specific projects.
▪ Centers will maintain the flexibility to accommodate changes in specific projects as the need for information changes.
▪ Sometimes specific projects have helped to promote integration.
▪ At other times it may be crash learning for a specific project.
▪ The organisation will consist of executive and advisory boards and adhoc committees and task forces will be set up for specific projects.
▪ With potential large corporate and individual donors, emphasize specific project sponsorship more than general operating fund support.
proposal
▪ According to the Washington Post of March 6 Baker urged the delegations to focus on negotiating specific proposals.
▪ These basic allocations set the ground rules for decisionmaking on specific proposals.
▪ On July 15 both countries issued specific proposals designed to increase cultural contacts.
▪ The President made no specific proposals on the matter, however.
▪ The report will discuss this aspect and make specific proposals for further investigation.
▪ There was both support for and opposition to the specific proposal on which we sought views.
▪ There are at present no specific proposals for changes in the treatment of dominant firm monopolies.
purpose
▪ Belbin's description of team roles has proved to be very useful, especially in creating teams for specific purposes.
▪ Still other badges are used for specific purposes.
▪ Research is an active and formally organised search for specific information for a specific purpose.
▪ The proposal serves as a guide to the hypothesis testing process which embodies the specific purpose of the study effort.
▪ It is always difficult estimating the room you will need unless you are having the greenhouse built for a specific purpose.
▪ It is brought into existence precisely to enable a specific purpose to be realised.
▪ There is now only the one pool, which he designed with the specific purpose of encouraging Koi-keepers with limited space.
▪ The business group will seek legislation allowing local governments to tax for specific purposes only.
question
▪ I want to put a specific question to the Minister.
▪ Part of the problem is that teachers often have a battery of specific questions and answers in mind.
▪ These data raise a number of specific questions, and some more general issues.
▪ If I asked him a specific question, he made an attempt to answer it.
▪ Searching for the implications of a question is beginning to relate your knowledge to a specific question.
▪ He was too sleepy to form specific questions and answers, and too tense to get to sleep.
▪ If patients ask specific questions which you can not deal with you should always refer this to sister.
▪ An investigation checklist given to San Francisco police officers during training includes specific questions that should be covered.
reference
▪ But the Act made no specific reference to special provision for young workers.
▪ But no specific reference was made to the race of the children, nor did it appear to affect deliberations.
▪ The earliest specific reference to its desertion comes from 1602.
target
▪ Patrols like this have specific targets.
▪ Disobedience has to be organized, and it has to have both a specific target and a specific objective.
▪ In a similar manner, cost-cutting exercises move always in the direction of cutting costs without a specific target.
▪ Last year, Trent noted, one-third of the cancer drugs approved hit specific targets.
▪ A small squadron could make a series of relay runs, each programmed for a few specific targets.
▪ The next stage is to make each step of the ladder a specific target.
▪ We will set specific targets for out-patient waiting times.
▪ Authorities were also asked to produce local charters which could set more ambitious and specific targets.
task
▪ The specific tasks allotted to each chapter, and the material included, also lead to different approaches.
▪ Jobs like this call for various database programs, each tailored to a specific task.
▪ The Committee would have specific tasks to carry out and if these were not achieved, an unqualified body might emerge.
▪ A typical pin might be the result of many individual workers, each with a specific task to do.
▪ A great deal of time was spent haggling over prices for specific tasks.
▪ One is identification of the specific tasks confronting each of the four learners.
▪ Diversity can only be increased through a body set up with the specific task of creating and sustaining new media.
▪ The two team leaders will decide on how the specific tasks will be divided between the two subgroups.
topic
▪ Meetings need not be addressed by any one person although a specific topic can be aired for discussion if the group wishes.
▪ Majordomo allows a group of people to join or quit a mailing list dedicated to a specific topic.
▪ An essay in Science, Engineering or Technology may call for a survey of the literature on a specific topic.
▪ A two-hour morning session was broken into segments, each devoted to a specific topic.
▪ Both of these edited volumes contain a number of relevant and clearly written papers on a variety of specific topics.
▪ Usenet-the Net's prime discussion area-comprises over 85,000 newsgroups, each dedicated to a specific topic.
▪ Some channels are obviously dedicated to specific topics, for example, but most are merely informal chat limes.
▪ In this article, as the title suggests, I shall deal in detail with a rather specific topic.
type
▪ The first is called algorithmic, which comprises a procedure or series of instructions used to solve a specific type of problem.
▪ We further found that certain physical and physiologic profiles put children at risk for specific types of learning and psychological problems.
▪ There are many occasions when you will have a specific type of claim which you wish to promote.
▪ It has already been noted that there is a variety of cleaning agents each of which affects specific types of soil.
▪ What specific type of exercise will benefit your body - what are your capabilities and limitations?
▪ Dealers can also provide a useful service in locating specific types of rug or generally buying on your behalf.
▪ These specific types of exercise are called aerobic exercises.
▪ Table 18, below, shows the percentages of all defective items which suffered from the specific types of damage noted.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Power plant employees must follow very specific safety guidelines.
▪ Rooney wouldn't comment on specific candidates for the job.
▪ Tauscher refused to be specific about his future plans.
▪ The Senate voted to ban nine specific models of assault weapons.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Each B-cell makes its own specific antibody, depending on the type of intruder to which it is responding.
▪ Figure 4 depicts the concentrations of IgM specific antibody secreting cells to beta lactoglobulin and casein in these patients.
▪ Generally, however, the handbook provisions in question must be specific and clear.
▪ Research is an active and formally organised search for specific information for a specific purpose.
▪ The true self must be understood as engaging in the world in a specific way as part of a community.
▪ Those consequences have been highlighted by my hon. Friend with specific examples from industries within his constituency.
▪ User attitudes to specific presentations and to the tape/slide method of instruction were also studied.
▪ We still have location-based teams but these work in partnership to make the best use of specific expertise at particular sites.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As yet there has been little public debate on the specifics of the options or the associated design choices.
▪ But he was unable to produce any specifics.
▪ Dole has endorsed the concept of a flat tax but has been reluctant to commit to specifics.
▪ He wants to know about specifics, about problems and how I solve them.
▪ Only as discussions settled down to specifics did some of the reasoning become clear.
▪ Perhaps custodial aesthetics, which is directed more to the specifics of particular cultures, in some way addresses his concerns.
▪ She was not allowed by her publicist to reveal any specifics about what new scandals she may have uncovered.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
specific

specific \spe*cif"ic\ (sp[-e]*s[i^]f"[i^]k), a. [F. sp['e]cifique, or NL. spesificus; L. species a particular sort or kind + facere to make. Cf. specify.]

  1. Of or pertaining to a species; characterizing or constituting a species; possessing the peculiar property or properties of a thing which constitute its species, and distinguish it from other things; as, the specific form of an animal or a plant; the specific qualities of a drug; the specific distinction between virtue and vice.

    Specific difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species from one another.
    --I. Watts.

  2. Specifying; definite, or making definite; limited; precise; discriminating; as, a specific statement.

  3. (Med.) Exerting a peculiar influence over any part of the body; preventing or curing disease by a peculiar adaptation, and not on general principles; as, quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria. In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science. --Coleridge. Specific character (Nat. Hist.), a characteristic or characteristics distinguishing one species from every other species of the same genus. Specific disease (Med.)

    1. A disease which produces a determinate definite effect upon the blood and tissues or upon some special tissue.

    2. A disease which is itself uniformly produced by a definite and peculiar poison or organism.

      Specific duty. (Com.) See under Duty.

      Specific gravity. (Physics) See under Gravity.

      Specific heat (Physics), the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a body one degree, taking as the unit of measure the quantity required to raise the same weight of water from zero to one degree; thus, the specific heat of mercury is 0.033, that of water being 1.000.

      Specific inductive capacity (Physics), the effect of a dielectric body in producing static electric induction as compared with that of some other body or bodies referred to as a standard.

      Specific legacy (Law), a bequest of a particular thing, as of a particular animal or piece of furniture, specified and distinguished from all others.
      --Wharton.
      --Burrill.

      Specific name (Nat. Hist.), the name which, appended to the name of the genus, constitutes the distinctive name of the species; -- originally applied by Linn[ae]us to the essential character of the species, or the essential difference. The present specific name he at first called the trivial name.

      Specific performance (Law), the peformance of a contract or agreement as decreed by a court of equity.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
specific

1630s, "having a special quality," from French spécifique and directly from Late Latin specificus "constituting a kind or sort" (in Medieval Latin "specific, particular"), from Latin species "kind, sort" (see species). Earlier form was specifical (early 15c.). Meaning "definite, precise" first recorded 1740. Related: Specifically; specificness.\n

specific

"a specific quality or detail," 1690s, from specific (adj.).

Wiktionary
specific

a. 1 explicit or definite 2 (context sciences English) Pertaining to a species. 3 (context taxonomy English) pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species 4 special, distinctive or unique 5 intended for, or applying to a particular thing 6 being a remedy for a particular disease 7 (context immunology English) limited to a particular antibody or antigen 8 (context physics English) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy) 9 (context physics English) 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) 10 (context physics English) 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) n. 1 A distinguishing attribute or quality. 2 Something particularly adapted for a particular use, as a remedy for a particular disorder 3 Specification 4 (context in the plural English) The details; particulars.

WordNet
specific
  1. adj. (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" [ant: general, nonspecific]

  2. stated explicitly or in detail; "needed a specific amount"

  3. relating to or distinguishing or constituting a taxonomic species; "specific characters"

  4. 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" [ant: nonspecific]

specific
  1. n. a fact about some part (as opposed to general); "he always reasons from the particular to the general" [syn: particular] [ant: general, general]

  2. a medicine that has a mitigating effect on a specific disease; "quinine is a specific for malaria"

Wikipedia
Specific

Specific may refer to:

  • Specificity (disambiguation)
  • Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness

Usage examples of "specific".

This would mean, according to our present understanding of heredity, an inherited abnormality in one or more enzyme systems and a metabolism that is therefore disordered in some specific manner.

The absolutist and patrimonial model survived in this period only with the support of a specific compromise of political forces, and its substance was eroding from the inside owing primarily to the emergence of new productive forces.

There were numerous longer forms of the acronym that indicated the general or specific reason for the restriction, but the simple version often was used as shorthand.

The specific treatment, which should not be omitted, consists in administering doses of ten drops of the tincture of the muriate of iron in alternation with teaspoonful doses of the Golden Medical Discovery, every three hours.

NSA decided it was administratively too difficult to determine whether particular reports derived from the specific surveillances authorized by the attorney general, NSA decided to place this caveat on all its terrorism-related reports.

Thus we are told that earth cannot have concrete existence without the help of some moist element--the moisture in water being the necessary adhesive--but admitting that we so find it, there is still a contradiction in pretending that any one element has a being of its own and in the same breath denying its self-coherence, making its subsistence depend upon others, and so, in reality, reducing the specific element to nothing.

The nostrums advertised extensively over the country as specifics for this disease, while they may, in some instances, prevent the attacks for a short time, irritate the stomach, impair digestion, lower vitality, and permanently injure the system, often rendering the disease incurable.

This means that your advertisement will appear anywhere between the covers as opposed to running in a specific section or a more prominent position.

Thus it was foreshadowed that the law of the land and the due process of law clauses, which were originally inserted in our constitutions to consecrate a specific mode of trial in criminal cases, to wit, the grand jury, petit jury process of the common law, would be transformed into a general restraint upon substantive legislation capable of affecting property rights detrimentally.

Wehrmacht chiefs and the Foreign Minister were confronted with specific dates for actual aggression against two neighboring countries - an action which they were sure would bring on a European war.

A very specific point, alas, and that more by will than any skill the medics brought.

He was put upon a tonic and alterative course of treatment, which also embraced the use of such medicines as have been found to exert a specific, tonic action upon the muscular tissues of the heart.

The only encouragement was the lack of specific alarm from the horses, who carried an ambient void of native presence around the village.

With intensified specific training they could ameliorate this liability, making it a fair contest.

Thus the sincere definite decision that the experiment was necessary, would probably do more for American moral and social amelioration than would the specific measures actually adopted and tried.