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Glite Dictionary
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specificity

specificity

7 7.4
The quality of affecting only one kind of living thing or cell
  • noun
  • /spɪˈsɪfɪsɪti/
  • Specialized
translation icon : especificidad
  • The vaccine's specificity allows it to target the virus effectively without affecting healthy cells.
  • sensitivity and specificity
  • host specificity
  • high specificity

And it's an actually, it's a frustrating aspect of psychiatry that in many cases the most effective treatments we have have the least specificity.

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Examples

  • Most policies that had been adopted contained inadequate wording due to a lack of specificity or potential loopholes.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Scientists study the specificity of enzymes to understand how they interact with specific substrates.

  • So, so far, you have specificity and now you can go inside the cell and you can test it.

  • The next one is really important: the domain specificity view of the human mind.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Because good prediction comes from specificity, right?

  • So you should think of the lymph nodes as being places where natural selection and specificity of action are occurring.

  • Molecular tools have also contributed greatly to researchers' understanding of host specificity patterns in fungal mutualisms.

    Academic text (2008)

  • There is a specificity to the Apple patent that pertains to capacitive touchscreens.

  • Understanding the specificity of a drug is crucial for developing effective treatments for specific diseases.

Synonyms

distinctiveness
vsspecificity
4 6.0

A quality that makes someone or something stand out from others

is limited to an organism or group rather than a general trait
particularity
vsspecificity
3 7.2

Being clear and exact about one thing

is limited to an organism or group rather than an individual case

Antonyms

generality
3 6.3

A quality that makes something useful in many situations

broadness
1 2.5

Great width of a place like a road or river

How Specific

specificity
  • Specialized
7 7.4
selectivity
4 6.7
generality
3 6.3
broadness
1 2.5

Surface Forms

specificity singular
specificities plural

Morphology

specificity = specific (transparent) = specific + ity

The noun is a regular abstract nominalization of the adjective 'specific' using the productive suffix '-ity', so the meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

The word specificity comes from the Latin root species meaning 'kind' or 'type', the same root you see in specific and species. In biology it means being for one particular kind, so an antibody's specificity means it only fits one type of cell.