specimen

[spes-uh-muhn]

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noun

a part or an individual taken as exemplifying a whole mass or number; a typical animal, plant, mineral, part, etc.

(in medicine, microbiology, etc.) a sample of a substance or material for examination or study: a urine specimen; a tissue specimen.

a particular or peculiar kind of person.

Origin of specimen

1600–10; < Latin: mark, example, indication, sign, equivalent to speci-, stem of specere to look, regard + -men noun suffix denoting result or means

Synonyms for specimen

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1. type, model, pattern.

Synonym study

1. See example.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for specimen

exhibit, copy, variety, case, sort, embodiment, pattern, individual, illustration, instance, part, exemplar, representative, representation, model, type, species, unit, proof, sampling

Examples from the Web for specimen

Contemporary Examples of specimen

That gave participants an opportunity to try taxidermy without skinning the specimen, which some people find hard to stomach.
Edible Taxidermy: It’s a Good Thing
Lizzie Crocker
August 5, 2014
The lab report came back showing the specimen was some kind of rotten meat.
Egypt Revolt: American Dreams of Cairo
Kareem Saleh
January 31, 2011
One day during his office hours, a female student asked him if he would agree to have a specimen studied in his laboratory.
Egypt Revolt: American Dreams of Cairo
Kareem Saleh
January 31, 2011
Officials there quickly handed over the specimen to Dutch authorities who have assumed investigative responsibility in this case.
Natalee Holloway: Is the Bone in Aruba Hers?
Barbie Latza Nadeau
November 19, 2010
Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry the VIII, is a specimen of speculation, admiration, and everything in between.
This Week's Hot Reads
The Daily Beast
December 29, 2009

Historical Examples of specimen

I had no means of preserving a specimen, but I took a drawing of one.
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Thomas Mitchell
But we have here a specimen of the inevitable consequence of sin.
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I
Francis Augustus Cox
Here is a specimen of his graceful blending of irony and humor.
The Works of Whittier, Volume VI (of VII)
John Greenleaf Whittier
He repaid Hopper with a specimen of his tongue, and flung the writ back at him.
The Channings
Mrs. Henry Wood
What do you think of him, sir, for a specimen of the Dotheboys Hall feeding?
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby
Charles Dickens

British Dictionary definitions for specimen

specimen

noun

an individual, object, or part regarded as typical of the group or class to which it belongs
(as modifier)a specimen signature; a specimen page

med a sample of tissue, blood, urine, etc, taken for diagnostic examination or evaluation

the whole or a part of an organism, plant, rock, etc, collected and preserved as an example of its class, species, etc

informal, often derogatory a person

Word Origin for specimen

C17: from Latin: mark, evidence, proof, from specere to look at

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for specimen

1610s, "pattern, model," from Latin specimen "indication, mark, example, sign, evidence," from specere "to look at" (see scope (n.1)). Meaning "single thing regarded as typical of its kind" first recorded 1650s.

specimen in Medicine

specimen

[spĕs′ə-mən]

n.

A sample, as of tissue, blood, or urine, used for analysis and diagnosis.