Other Word Forms
- nonspecificity noun
Etymology
Origin of specificity
Explanation
Specificity is the goal of anyone who wants to know — or give — every single detail. If your friend's story is too vague, ask for specificity when things aren't clear. Specificity may look hard to pronounce, but if you remember that the first syllable rhymes with guess, the rest will flow easily: "spes-uh-FIS-uh-tee." Now try specificus, the Latin word at the root of specificity and the word species. Those words may not seem related — until you think about the classification of living things: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Species is the most specific in the hierarchy!
Vocabulary lists containing specificity
What If It's Us
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Top Ten Most Relevant Words from Republican Presidential Candidates' Debate - Nov. 10, 2015
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United States v. Nixon (1974)
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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.
The audience had “such a fervent passion for that story, I think, because of the specificity of those perspectives,” Howe said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
"In an AI search engine, the average length is 40 to 60 words. So, you're talking about an order of magnitude of specificity change."
From BBC • Apr. 6, 2026
By examining evolutionary relationships between uracil sensors and related sensory domains, the team found that ligand specificity can change relatively easily over time.
From Science Daily • Feb. 8, 2026
Though she hasn’t had a film role of this size in well over a decade, Paltrow still performs with the care and specificity of an actor who truly cares for the work.
From Salon • Dec. 22, 2025
I was still practicing law, but the specificity of the work and the change of scenery distracted me just enough from the bigger questions beginning to bubble up in my mind.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
