Specificity

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being specific rather than general. uncountable, usually

    "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 means to ensure police follow warrant requirements without sacrificing law enforcement's ability to pursue the crime they're investigating."

  2. 2
    the quality of being specific rather than general wordnet
  3. 3
    The extent to which a characteristic is specific to a given person, place, or thing; thus:; The probability, in a binary classification test, of a true negative being correctly identified. uncountable, usually

    "Coordinate term: sensitivity"

  4. 4
    the quality of being specific to a particular organism wordnet
  5. 5
    The extent to which a characteristic is specific to a given person, place, or thing; thus:; The extent to which a particular diagnostic test is specific for, or a symptom or sign is specific to, a given condition. uncountable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
accuracycircumstantialityindividualityparticularitypeculiaritypropriety

Example

More examples

"Specificity is a virtue when you write a technical document."

Etymology

From specific + -ity. Compare French spécificité.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.