Detail vs Specific - What's the difference?
detail | specific |
(countable) Something small enough to escape casual notice.
(uncountable) A profusion of details.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)
, volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Something considered trivial enough to ignore.
(countable) A person's name, address and other personal information.
(military) A temporary unit or assignment.
A part distinct from the whole.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
to explain in detail
* 2014 , Ian Black, "
(US (?)) to clean carefully (particularly a car) ()
(military) to assign to a particular task
explicit or definite
(sciences) Pertaining to a species.
*2008 , (Richard Dawkins), The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing , Oxford 2009, p. 3:
*:Science and literature, then, are the two achievements of Homo sapiens that most convincingly justify the specific name.
(taxonomy) pertaining to a taxon at the rank of species
special, distinctive or unique
intended for, or applying to a particular thing
being a remedy for a particular disease
* Coleridge
(immunology) limited to a particular antibody or antigen
(physics) of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)
(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)
(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)
A distinguishing attribute or quality.
Something particularly adapted for a particular use, as a remedy for a particular disorder
Specification
(in the plural) The details; particulars.
As nouns the difference between detail and specific
is that detail is something small enough to escape casual notice while specific is a distinguishing attribute or quality.As a verb detail
is to explain in detail.As an adjective specific is
explicit or definite.detail
English
Noun
Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli, passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail , a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.}}
Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution, passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
Synonyms
* (something considered trivial enough to ignore) technicality, trifle, triviality * (personal information) particulars * contingent, detachmentDerived terms
* in detail * detail-orientedSee also
* overview * bird's-eye view * big pictureVerb
(en verb)- I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
- It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world.
- We need to have the minivan detailed .
Derived terms
* detailingSynonyms
* (to explain in detail) specify * detachAnagrams
* * English heteronyms ----specific
English
Alternative forms
* specifick (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- Quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria.
- In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science.