specificity

specificity

English

Etymology

From French spécificité

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /spɛsɪˈfɪsɪti/

Noun

specificity (plural specificities)

1. The state of being specific rather than general.
2. The extent to which a characteristic is specific to a given person, place, or thing; thus:
   1. (statistics) The probability, in a binary 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.

Synonyms

• specificness (much less common)

Antonyms

• nonspecificity
• genericity

Derived terms

• allospecificity
• aspecificity
• bispecificity
• chemospecificity
• conspecificity
• diastereospecificity
• enantiospecificity
• heterospecificity
• heterosubspecificity
• homospecificity
• hyperspecificity
• immunospecificity
• interspecificity
• intraspecificity
• isospecificity
• monospecificity
• multispecificity
• neospecificity
• neurospecificity
• nonspecificity
• organospecificity
• overspecificity
• paraspecificity
• polyspecificity
• regiospecificity
• serospecificity
• stereospecificity
• subspecificity
• unspecificity
• xenospecificity

 

Coordinate terms

• (statistics, binary probability): sensitivity

Translations

the state of being specific rather than general

Catalan: especificitat f Dutch: specificiteit Esperanto: specifeco French: spécificité (fr) f Georgian: სპეციფიკურობა (sṗecipiḳuroba)

Italian: specificità (it) Portuguese: especificidade f Romanian: specificitate (ro) f Spanish: especificidad (es) f

a probability in a binary test of a true negative being correctly identified

French: spécificité (fr) f

Further reading

• specificity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• specificity at OneLook Dictionary Search