# specialist

Pronunciation: US say "SPESH-uh-list" /ˈspɛʃəlɪst/; UK

## Noun

1. A person who has extensive knowledge of a particular subject or devotes themselves to studying or researching it.
   - Simple: A person who knows a great deal about one subject.
   - _The library keeps a specialist in medieval manuscripts on staff._
   - _Generalists see the pattern; specialists see the exception that breaks it._
2. A doctor who works in only one branch of medicine or surgery, such as cardiology or dermatology.
   - Simple: A doctor who treats only one kind of illness or one part of the body.
   - _Many Americans believe they must see a specialist for almost every problem._
   - _He retired as a specialist in internal medicine after forty years._
4. In sports, a player who primarily employs one skill or fills one role on a team.
   - Simple: A player who does one job on a team, such as kicking.
   - _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._
5. In the US military, any of several non-commissioned ranks corresponding to corporal. *(US)*
   - Simple: In the US Army, a rank for enlisted soldiers about equal to a 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._
6. In ecology, an organism adapted to live in one particular kind of environment.
   - Simple: A plant or animal that can live only in one particular kind of place.
   - _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._
7. A sixth-former at Eton College.
   - Simple: At Eton College, a student in the sixth form (the senior years).
   - _At Eton, each specialist chooses a narrow set of subjects for the final two years._
   - _She tutored two Eton specialists in Latin that summer._

## Adjective

3. Specialized; involving detailed knowledge of a restricted topic, chiefly British. *(British)*
   - Simple: Needing or using deep knowledge of one narrow subject. A British use.
   - _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._

## Origin

Borrowed from French spécialiste, which is the equivalent of 'special' combined with the suffix '-ist'.

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