Adjective

specific (comparative more specific, superlative most specific)

Positive specific

Comparative more specific

Superlative most specific

1. explicit or definite
2. of, or relating to a species
3. (taxonomy) pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species
4. special, distinctive or unique
5. intended for, or applying to a particular thing
6. being a remedy for a particular disease
7. (immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen
8. (physics) a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
9. (physics) similarly referring to a value divided by any measure which acts to standardize it (e.g. thrust specific fuel consumption, referring to fuel consumption divided by thrust)
10. (physics) a measure compared with a standard reference value by division, to produce a ratio without unit or dimension (e.g. specific refractive index is a pure number, and is relative to that of air)

Antonyms

• all-purpose
• broad
• general
• general-purpose
• generic
• gross
• nonspecific
• overall
• pandemic
• universal
• unspecific
• widespread

Derived terms

• conspecific
• gender-specific
• infraspecific
• interspecific
• intraspecific
• nonspecific
• prostate-specific antigen
• species-specific
• specific charge

• specific energy
• specific epithet
• specific fuel consumption
• specific name
• specific power
• specific gravity
• specific heat
• specific impulse
• specific performance
• specific resistance
• specific thrust
• specificity

"Specific" generally means per unit of something (often mass), but signals a division by a quantity which may or may not be named. If the quanity is named, it is usually placed before "specific" in the term (i.e., thrust specific fuel consumption). Named and unnamed divisor quantities are given for the terms below.

Per unit of mass:

• Specific activity
• Specific energy
  • Specific internal energy
  • Specific kinetic energy
• Specific enthalpy
• Specific force
• Specific heat capacity, heat capacity per unit mass, unless another unit is named.
• Specific latent heat
• Specific modulus
• Specific orbital energy, orbital energy per unit mass
• Specific power, per unit of mass (or volume or area)
• Specific relative angular momentum
• Specific surface area, per unit of mass, volume, or cross-sectional area
• Specific volume, volume per unit of mass, or reciprocal of density

Per unit of other type. The dividing unit is sometimes added before the term "specific," and sometimes omitted.

• Brake specific fuel consumption, fuel consumption per unit of braking power
• Thrust specific fuel consumption, fuel consumption per unit of thrust
• Specific fuel consumption, disambiguation. Fuel consumption per unit thrust, or per unit power. Type defined as above.
• Specific acoustic impedance, ratio of sound pressure p to particle velocity v at a single frequency
• Specific conductance, conductance per meter. Same as electrical conductivity
• Specific detectivity of a photodetector
• Specific gas constant, per molar mass
• Specific gravity, relative density with respect to water (density per water density)
• Specific heat of vaporization, enthalpy of vaporization, vaporizing heat per mole
• Specific humidity, ratio of water vapor to air (including water vapor and dry air) in a particular mass
• Specific impulse, impulse (momenum change) per unit of propellant (either unit propellant mass, or unit propellant Earth-weight)
• Specific mass, actually meaning volume-specific mass, or mass per unit volume. Same as density
• Specific melting heat, enthalpy of fusion; melting heat per mole
• Specific modulus, elastic modulus per mass density
• Specific properties of a substance
• Specific resistance, resistance per meter. Same as electrical resistivity
• Specific speed, unitless figure of merit used to classify pump impellers (pump-specific) and turbines (turbine-specific). Ratio of performance against reference pump that needs one unit of speed to pump one unit volume per one unit hydraulic head pressure. For a turbine, it is performance measured against a reference turbine that develops one unit of power per one unit speed per one unit hydraulic head.
• Specific strength, material strength (pressure required at failure) per unit material density.
• Specific surface area, per unit of mass, volume, or cross-sectional area
• Specific surface energy, free energy per unit surface-area
• Specific thrust, thrust per unit air intake rate
• Specific weight, weight per unit volume

Other fields

• Specific absorption rate, power absorbed per mass of tissue at a given frequency
• Specific acid catalysis, in which the reaction rate is proportional to the concentration of the protonated solvent molecules
• Specific capacity of a water well, quantity per unit of drawdown
• Specific creation, creationism as opposed to evolution
• Specific interval, shortest possible clockwise distance between pitch classes on the chromatic circle
• Specific integral, in calculus, eliminates the constant of integration
• Specific Physical Preparedness, being prepared for the movements in a specific physical activity (usually a sport).
• Specific rotation of a chemical, angle of optical rotation α when plane-polarized light is passed through a sample with a path length of 1 decimeter and a sample concentration of 1 gram per 1 millilitre.
• Specific storage, specific yield, and specific capacity, characterize the capacity of an aquifer to release groundwater from storage in response to a decline in hydraulic head