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Professional vs Specialist - What's the difference?

professional | specialist |

As nouns the difference between professional and specialist

is that professional is a person who belongs to a profession while specialist is someone who is an expert in, or devoted to, some specific branch of study or research.

As adjectives the difference between professional and specialist

is that professional is of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession while specialist is specialised.

professional

English

Noun

(wikipedia professional) (en noun)
  • A person who belongs to a profession
  • A person who earns his living from a specified activity
  • An expert.
  • * 1934 , edition, ISBN 0553278193, page 97:
  • I have learned that there is a person attached to a golf club called a professional'. Find out who fills that post at the Green Meadow Club; invite the ' professional , urgently, to dine with us this evening.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession.
  • *
  • *:His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill;.
  • That is carried out for money, especially as a livelihood.
  • (lb) Expert.
  • Derived terms

    * non-professional, nonprofessional * professionalism * unprofessional

    specialist

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (British) Specialised.
  • Noun

    (en noun) (wikipedia specialist)
  • Someone who is an expert in, or devoted to, some specific branch of study or research.
  • (medicine) A physician whose practice is limited to a particular branch of medicine or surgery.
  • (US, military) Any of several non-commissioned ranks corresponding to that of corporal.
  • Synonyms

    * (Someone who is an expert or devoted to a particular area of study) aficionado, enthusiast, connoisseur

    Antonyms

    * generalist

    Hypernyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * specialistic

    Anagrams

    * ----