Difference between Particular and Specific

What is the difference between Particular and Specific?

Particular as a noun is a particular thing. while Specific as a noun is a distinguishing attribute or quality.

Particular

Part of speech: noun

Definition: A particular thing.

Part of speech: adjective

Definition: Pertaining only to a part of something; partial. Specific; discrete; concrete. Specialised; characteristic of a specific person or thing. Known only to an individual person or group; confidential. Distinguished in some way; special (often in negative constructions). Of a person, concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; precise; fastidious.

Example sentence: I'm not that conservative. I do feel - I guess I'm more of a Democrat at heart, although I've never affiliated myself with a particular party.

Specific

Part of speech: noun

Definition: A distinguishing attribute or quality.Something particularly adapted for a particular use, as a remedy for a particular disorderSpecificationThe details; particulars.

Part of speech: adjective

Definition: explicit or definiteof, or relating to a speciespertaining to a taxon at the rank of speciesspecial, distinctive or uniqueintended for, or applying to a particular thingbeing a remedy for a particular diseaselimited to a particular antibody or antigena value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy)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)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)

Example sentence: No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.

We hope you now know whether to use Particular or Specific in your sentence.

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