specimen

American  

[spes-uh-muhn] / ˈspɛs ə mən /

noun

• specimens
  plural

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.

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specimen British  

/ 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

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Synonym Usage

See example.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• specimens
  plural

Etymology

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

Explanation

A specimen is a sample of something, like a specimen of blood or body tissue that is taken for medical testing. The noun specimen comes from the Latin word specere, meaning “to look.” Biologists collect specimens so they can get a better look at something to study it. The idea is that, with a good specimen, you can learn about an entire group: it's a good representation. That meaning is echoed in the slang use of specimen, a strong, healthy and attractive person.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

specimen specimens

It is the first confirmed example of this part of the skull in a Japanese mosasaur specimen.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026

At first glance, he thought he was looking at a specimen that had been sick or injured rather than a new species.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

The specimen, which contains a tyrannosaur tooth still embedded in another dinosaur's skull, is the focus of a new study by researchers from Montana State University and the University of Alberta in Canada.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026

Hatton says the price paid reflects the time and resources that went into uncovering the specimen.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

I became increasingly aware that the man was staring at me, not impolitely, but as though he were studying an unknown specimen.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

"I'm really more of a paleoecologist, paleogeographer, not a taxonomist," says Dr. Cruz, who noticed unusual features in the Tar Pits specimens that distinguished S. labreae from known spadefoot toads.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

He then compared the collection with the 80 specimens at the Herpetology Collection at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of Berkeley.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

I’ve been an eyewitness to lost specimens turning up in a museum when a colleague spotted a dinosaur skull and pterosaur skeleton sitting on the wrong shelf like misplaced library books.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

Some specimens appear to be about 567 million years old.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

They’d been placed in formaldehyde because Zanmi Lasante didn’t have the equipment to preserve the specimens in frozen sections.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Related Words

• copy
• exhibit
• variety