# specialise

Pronunciation: say "SPESH-uh-lyz" /ˈspɛʃəˌlaɪz/

## Verb

1. To concentrate your studies or work on one particular skill, subject, field or kind of product or service, as a student, professional or business does.
   - Simple: To study or work mainly on one subject, skill or kind of thing, more than any other.
   - _Pupils in England usually begin to specialise when they choose their A levels._
   - _After qualifying as a solicitor, he specialised in employment law._
2. To adapt something, especially an organism or one of its parts, so that it differs from others and is suited to a particular purpose or function.
   - Simple: To change something, such as an animal or a part of its body, so it is suited to one special job.
   - _Evolution has specialised the anteater's long, sticky tongue for collecting ants and termites._
   - _Over many generations, natural selection can specialise a bird's beak for one kind of food._
3. Of a thing itself, to change over time into a more distinct form, gaining features of its own that set it apart from the general type.
   - Simple: To change over time into a more distinct form, often suited to one special job or role.
   - _Stem cells can specialise into muscle, nerve or blood cells._
   - _As the town grew, its trades specialised, and each street became known for one craft._
5. To be known, or notorious, for a particular habit or kind of thing; usually said disapprovingly.
   - Simple: To be known for one particular thing, usually something bad or annoying.
   - _The council appears to specialise in roadworks that never seem to end._
   - _The tabloid specialises in stories that fall apart within a week._

## Verb

4. To make something narrower in scope. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To make something cover a smaller range of things.
6. To name or mention something specifically, so that there is no doubt which is meant. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To name or mention something exactly.
7. To go into particular details instead of speaking in general terms. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To talk about the exact details of something, not just in general.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To train someone until they are skilled in a particular specialty.

## Origin

Formed from special + the suffix -ise.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/specialise (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).