specific

Less common meanings

6. 6
   tells disease apartadjective

   Serving to identify one particular thing, often a disease, with little risk of confusing it with something else.

   A highly specific test rarely flags healthy people as sick.

   Doctors look for a specific marker that points only to that condition.

   Note

   The diagnostician's sense applies to tests, signs and symptoms. A highly specific test rarely responds to the wrong condition, so it gives few false positives. A nonspecific symptom is one many illnesses share, so it points nowhere in particular. Specific and nonspecific are the working pair, and the adjective grades readily: highly specific, less specific. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • A highly specific diagnostic test has a low false-positive rate. cancer.gov
   • A nonspecific symptom does not identify one particular illness because it occurs in multiple conditions. en.wikipedia.org
7. 7
   antigen-matchedadjective

   Limited in action to a particular antibody or antigen.

   The antibody is specific to a single surface protein on the virus.

   Vaccines train the immune system to mount specific responses against one pathogen.

   Note

   Immunology uses the word for recognition. An antibody specific to one antigen binds that target and leaves others alone. This is the molecular selectivity behind immune responses. Keep it apart from the diagnostic sense. There, specific describes how reliably a test avoids false alarms. Here, it describes what a molecule or response will and will not act on. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Antigen recognition involves molecular selectivity. imgt.org
   • Diagnostic specificity concerns avoidance of false-positive results. stacks.cdc.gov
8. 8
   treats the causeadjective

   Of a remedy, acting against one particular disease itself, as quinine against malaria, rather than having a general effect or easing symptoms.

   A specific treatment targets the infection itself rather than simply reducing the fever it causes.

   Unlike the old painkillers, the new drug is a specific treatment that goes after the infection itself.

   Similarcurative

   Oppositepalliative, symptomatic

   Note

   An older medical ideal: the remedy that strikes the disease itself, as quinine was held to strike malaria. Its working opposite is symptomatic, as in an effect that is "specific rather than symptomatic." Coleridge in 1830 regrets that "the study of specific medicines is too much disregarded," then moves straight on to "the hunting after specifics, the remedies themselves". This shows how readily the adjective became a noun. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Quinine was historically regarded as a specific remedy against malaria. gutenberg.org
   • The quoted wording contrasts a specific effect with a symptomatic effect. en.wiktionary.org
   • The recorded Coleridge remark is dated 1830, specifically May 23; this is the conversation date, not the book's publication year. gutenberg.org
   • Coleridge says that the study of specific medicines is disregarded and immediately proceeds to hunting after specifics. gutenberg.org
   • The passage illustrates the adjective specific and the corresponding noun specifics referring to medicines. gutenberg.org
9. 9
   remedynouncountable

   A medicine or remedy effective against one particular disease.

   A compound of spurge, cardamom, cinnamon of Mecca, pellitory, ginger, nettle seed is an Arab specific for sexual weakness.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs

   UsageUsually a specific for or against a disease.

   Similarremedy, cure

   Oppositepanacea, cure-all

   Note

   The remedy as a countable thing, usually followed by for: an Arab specific for sexual weakness, or rabies "for which there was no specific," as Charles Portis writes in True Grit (1968). It stretches easily into the figurative. In Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Romance and Reality (1831), change of scene and a new lover are "infallible specifics" against sorrow. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • The example 'an Arab specific for sexual weakness' is attested. en.wiktionary.org
   • Charles Portis wrote True Grit, first published in 1968. openlibrary.org
   • True Grit contains the quoted wording about hydrophobia. en.wiktionary.org
   • Hydrophobia is another name for rabies. en.wikipedia.org
   • Letitia Elizabeth Landon authored Romance and Reality, published in 1831. en.wikisource.org
   • Romance and Reality calls change of scene and a new lover 'infallible specifics' in a discussion of sorrow. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    nounrarecountable

    A distinguishing attribute or quality that marks one thing off from another.

    Similarcharacteristic, attribute, trait, feature, quality

11. 11
    noun

    The distinguishing element of a place name, as opposed to its general descriptive part.