specialist
Americannoun
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specialists
plural
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a person who is devoted to one subject or to one particular branch of a subject or pursuit.
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a medical practitioner who devotes attention to a particular class of diseases, patients, etc.
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U.S. Army. an enlisted person of one of four grades having technical or administrative duties, the grades corresponding to those of corporal through sergeant first class but not requiring the exercise of command.
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Stock Exchange. a member of an exchange who buys and sells a single stock or a particular group of stocks in their own name or for other stockbrokers and thus helps maintain the market in those securities on that exchange.
noun
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a person who specializes in or devotes himself to a particular area of activity, field of research, etc
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( as modifier )
specialist knowledge
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an enlisted rank in the US Army denoting technical qualifications that entitle the holder to a noncommissioned officer's pay
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ecology an organism that has special nutritional requirements and lives in a restricted habitat that provides these Compare generalist
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of specialist
Explanation
A specialist has an area of expertise in a profession or branch of learning. Call an ear, nose, and throat specialist if you can’t shake a stuffy nose, but go to a Shakespeare specialist to learn about King Lear. Specialist started off as a word used just for doctors who focused particular diseases or parts of the body, but now a specialist can be someone with a narrow focus in any field. A specialist is any professional with a specialty — lawyers are specialists because each lawyer deals with a specific kind of legal work. To be a specialist you have to study or get experience in a specific field for a long time.
Vocabulary lists containing specialist
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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National Nurses Week: Hospital People and Places
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Things Not Seen
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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.
See Examples For:
"We must have hoovered up hundreds of thousands of cockroaches with specialist equipment and then treated it."
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Davood Javid, a senior specialist in the department, explained that three out of four of the 20 doctors working at the cardiology unit were born abroad.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
The savings, pensions and retirement income specialist posted a strong set of results, with operating profit ahead of consensus, supported by strong growth in assets under administration, the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Cat transport specialist Augustus Hoovestal meets trap-neuter-release volunteers in a CVS parking lot to coordinate the transfer of cats to a veterinary clinic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Physician recommended diagnostics and referred to specialist for ruling out infection or cancer.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Those patients are more likely to be able to pay not only for the initial test, but also for the specialists, repeat imaging, and biopsies that may follow.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
Along with Carroll, the UMD co-authors included Department of Biology visiting faculty specialists Fiona Ukken and Yetunde Ayinuola.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
Cancer specialists in Bengaluru independent of the project voiced cautious optimism.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
Bank of America has specialists trained to spot financial exploitation so they can work with at-risk clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Military biohazard specialists have ways of describing this occurrence.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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.
