specimen

[spes-uh-muhn]

noun

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

   Synonyms: pattern, model, type

2. (in medicine, microbiology, etc.) a sample of a substance or material for examination or study.

   a urine specimen; a tissue specimen.

3. a particular or peculiar kind of person.

specimen

/ ˈspɛsɪmɪn /

noun

1. 1. an individual, object, or part regarded as typical of the group or class to which it belongs

   2. ( as modifier )

      a specimen signature

      a specimen page

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

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

4. informal,  a person

Word History and Origins

Origin of specimen¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of specimen¹

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

Synonym Study

See example.

Example Sentences

There are also clues as to how this particular specimen lived and died.

Read more on BBC

The 35-year-old pleaded guilty in December 2025 to charges of robbery, dangerous driving, failing to provide a specimen of blood for analysis, driving without a licence and without insurance.

Read more on BBC

Even if the leads never seem more than specimens of exquisite ache, Mescal and O’Connor are too good not to sow a believable through line of love and consequence.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Morrow is only part machine, you see, and the android notices that the specimens react to him as Morrow insists that the alien species belong to Yutani.

Read more on Salon

At the same court, Ross Ellis, of Orchard Croft, Harlow, was sentenced for failing to provide a specimen.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• copy 
• exhibit 
• variety