specialist

Pluralspecialists

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A person who has extensive knowledge of a particular subject or devotes themselves to studying or researching it.

   The library keeps a specialist in medieval manuscripts on staff.

   Generalists see the pattern; specialists see the exception that breaks it.

   Similarexpert, connoisseur, enthusiast, aficionado

   Oppositegeneralist, layman

   Note

   Two strands run through the person-noun: knowing a field in depth, and being devoted to it. Aficionado, enthusiast and connoisseur carry the devotion, but they do not promise the expertise. When you need the authority of a specialist, name the field after in, as in a specialist in medieval manuscripts.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A doctor who works in only one branch of medicine or surgery, such as cardiology or dermatology.

   Many Americans believe they must see a specialist for almost every problem.

   He retired as a specialist in internal medicine after forty years.

   Similarconsultant

   Oppositegeneralist

   Note

   Medicine uses the word to mean limitation: a practice confined to one branch, named after in, as in a retired specialist in internal medicine. The limit is the point. When Jamie Koufman wrote "The Specialists' Stranglehold on Medicine" in 2017, she argued that Americans wrongly believe they must see specialists for almost every medical problem.

3. 3
   adjectiveBritish

   Specialized; involving detailed knowledge of a restricted topic, chiefly British.

   This was a highly specialist job, carried out so carefully that the replacements are hard to spot.

   Specialist journals rarely reach readers outside the field.

   Similarspecialized, technical, expert, niche

   Oppositegeneral, popular

   Note

   A British habit: the same form as the noun for an expert, set before another noun to describe the work itself, as in specialist knowledge or a specialist job. Unlike most such modifiers, it grades: a highly specialist job, more specialist, most specialist. The word as a whole comes from French spécialiste, built like English special plus -ist.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   In sports, a player who primarily employs one skill or fills one role on a team.

   The relief specialist pitched to a single left-handed batter and left.

   Coaches must decide between a specialist and an all-rounder for the last place in the squad.

   Oppositeall-rounder

   Note

   On a team sheet the word is defined by its opposite, the all-rounder. One player is kept for a single job, the other covers many. A word in front usually names the job, as in relief specialist, and choosing between the two kinds of player is a familiar question when a squad is picked.

5. 5
   nounUScountable

   In the US military, any of several non-commissioned ranks corresponding to corporal.

   A specialist holds the same pay grade as a corporal but does not lead a team.

   Most soldiers reach specialist within their first enlistment.

   Note

   Here the word is a rank title in US usage, not a compliment about skill. It belongs to a set of non-commissioned grades that correspond to corporal. Like other rank names, it can stand without an article after verbs of promotion: soldiers reach specialist or are promoted to specialist.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   In ecology, an organism adapted to live in one particular kind of environment.

   The moss is a specialist of wet limestone cliffs and grows nowhere else.

   Specialists thrive while their niche is stable and suffer first when it changes.

   Oppositegeneralist

   Note

   Biologists rarely leave the word bare. A modifier usually names the habitat or diet the organism depends on, as in a high alpine specialist found in high-altitude bog communities. Used this way, it means the same thing as the stenotopic species, which is the stricter technical term for an organism that tolerates only a narrow range of conditions.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A sixth-former at Eton College.

   At Eton, each specialist chooses a narrow set of subjects for the final two years.

   She tutored two Eton specialists in Latin that summer.

Showing meanings only. Show all 7