spec
noun
Usually specs specification.
Showing results for spec.
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Specked.
spec
1 American
[spek]
/ spɛk /
adjective
verb (used with object)
spec'd,
specked,
specced,
spec'ing,
specking,
speccing
-
to provide specifications for.
The custom turbocharger was spec'd by our mechanic.
-
(in a video game) to create or update (a character) by assigning attributes, skills, weapons, armor, and other items that affect the character’s powers, speed, strength, intelligence, etc..
Do your research before you spec your character, because some builds are just not viable and this game does not allow you to re-spec.
idioms
spec.
2
American
abbreviation
-
special.
-
specially.
-
specifically.
-
specification.
spec.
1
British
abbreviation
-
specification
-
speculation
spec
2
British
/ spɛk /
noun
adjective
spec
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of spec
An Americanism dating back to 1785–95; by shortening
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“No unknown writer gets this kind of deal for a spec script.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Aston Martin had a major car upgrade in Hungary two races ago, and a "spec two" Honda engine at the race before Italy in Zandvoort, on either side of the summer break.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
“I’ve been buying over the past two, three years anyway and making some investments and putting out some new spec homes, but I think we’re going to start getting a little bit more aggressive now.”
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
In Bel-Air, a 105,000-square-foot spec house was marketed for $500 million, but by the time it was finished, it was already falling into disrepair and ended up being auctioned off for $141 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
“I—I spec I like looking after the kids best,” she whispers.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
“The idea is: Okay, we tested it, it’s perfectly good heavy water. It meets spec. We’ll buy a little of this,” U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2016
He does, however, object to the second: "As a name of opprobrium or reprobation; spec. applied to a grasping or extortionate moneylender or usurer, or a trader who drives hard bargains or deals craftily."
From Time Magazine Archive
A mixture containing 1.055 vols. of spec. gr.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 286, June 25, 1881 by Various
More mihte doð ure helende þenne þe holi word þe he þurh his muð spec. þanne he giueð mannes cuinde.
From Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts by Joseph Hall
Poor Moses' gross of green spectacles would not have proved so bad a spec. in Canada*.
From The Backwoods of Canada Being Letters From The Wife of an Emigrant Officer, Illustrative of the Domestic Economy of British America by Catharine Parr Strickland Traill
“Visibility may depend less on advertising to people and more on being clearly described to agents through specs, structured product data and reviews that match the criteria agents ask about,” Kim said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
"Chaplain Emma Roberts, 54, and the Labour chief, 56, share the same haircut, brows, thick-rimmed specs and smile," the paper reports, fashioning a game of "spot the difference".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
In short: The deal’s all about workflows, like storyboarding and tech specs.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
Our guide helps you navigate it, from assessing the gadgets your already own to choosing a good vendor and paying attention to specs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
"JPL followed the specs perfectly. It fits like a glove."
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
From the looks of things, despite the radically different design, the S22 Ultra appears to be a very similarly specced device to its predecessor.
From The Verge ● Jan. 26, 2022
It’s built a loyal fanbase around nice looking all-in-one portable projectors that are reasonably specced yet still inexpensive.
From The Verge ● Nov. 24, 2021
It’s a bit specced down, though, including just an RTX 3050 Ti and 16GB of RAM.
From The Verge ● Sep. 30, 2021
To get a similarly specced Balsam Hill tree at a price close to our pick, you’re limited to the company’s Traditional line, which is made entirely of PVC.
From Slate ● Nov. 23, 2018
Yeah, but the DoD had an RFI for an RFQ that became a RFP, specced by NSA and based upon TD-80-81.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau
I’d option-delete those, if I were speccing a car for myself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Honor has done a good job at speccing out the hardware of the Magic4 Pro.
From The Verge ● May 12, 2022
These allusions to Ireland are ever-present in the band’s creations, with titles such as “Tir na nÓg” and “Connla’s Well” specked across their discography.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2025
But the cream-filled doughnuts would be my choice, from the caffeine jolt I got after eating the coffee cream specked with ground beans to a milky, horchata-filled doughnut colored with fall spices.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 4, 2023
He wore a black championship shirt, a white championship hat and goggles still specked with champagne bubbles.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2022
Rereading Woolf newly attuned to color, I notice that precise tints and hues daub nearly every paragraph: birds' breasts are "specked canary and rose," morning air is "grey-blue," brooches "sea-green."
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2020
Through the fly- specked screen-door, I could see that the arms of Momma’s apron jiggled from the vibrations of her humming.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Along the Grand Strand, the stretch of beach communities specking the South Carolina coast, people had to be plucked from flooded cars and buildings surrounded by water and piers had been swept into the ocean.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
Last week Luftwaffe planes spotted a huge Allied convoy specking the slate-grey sea between Iceland and Norway's North Cape.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thou wouldst deem that all the ravens of Erin were above him, and that flakes of snow were specking the plain before him.”
From Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland by T. O. Russell
We have twenty-one of them up, specking the sky as clearly as a bacteriologist's slide is specked with microbes.
From Letters from France by C. E. W. (Charles Edwin Woodrow) Bean
Balaclava, with its Greek population, its girdle of rocks, and its mild climate, resembles those little towns of the Archipelago that are seen specking the horizon as one sails towards Constantinople.
From Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. by Xavier Hommaire de Hell
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
