specificity

The state of being specific rather than general.

Noun

  1. The state of being specific rather than general.
    • Congress must set a clear standard: Police should prove with specificity what's on your phone before forcing it open, and only after the device's owner has consulted with a lawyer. Doing so would provide citizens a...
  2. The extent to which a characteristic is specific to a given person, place, or thing; thus:
    • Coordinate term: sensitivity

    1. (statistics) The probability, in a binary classification test, of a true negative being correctly identified.

    2. (medicine) The extent to which a particular diagnostic test is specific for, or a symptom or sign is specific to, a given condition.

Origin

From specific + -ity, perhaps modelled after French spécificité. First attested in 1829.

Forms

specificities

Synonyms

specificness individuality particularity peculiarity propriety singularity specialty specificity

Antonyms

nonspecificity genericity

Derived

allospecificity aspecificity bispecificity cardiospecificity chemospecificity conspecificity diastereospecificity enantiospecificity heterospecificity heterosubspecificity homospecificity hyperspecificity immunospecificity interspecificity intraspecificity isospecificity monospecificity multispecificity neospecificity neurospecificity nonspecificity organospecificity overspecificity paraspecificity