specific

[spəˈsɪf.ɪk]

/[spəˈsɪf.ɪk]/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“specific” is uncommon German (frequency #50,064 among 8,027 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,064
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - typisch, für etwas bezeichnend/kennzeichnend

Corpus desk

Index DE-specific · specific · German

specific · rank #50,064 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,064
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH Sozialwissens…

Nearest frequency peer: Sozialwissenschaft (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „specific“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „specific“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for specific
PropertyValue
Headwordspecific
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdjective
IPA[spəˈsɪf.ɪk]
Letters8
Frequency rank#50,064
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „specific“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).specificfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Sozialwissenschaft“ (#50,063), „spionieren“ (#50,066), „Sonderschule“ (#50,061). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „specific“ bei #50,064. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

specific is uncommon German at frequency #50,064 among 8,027 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed [spəˈsɪf.ɪk]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

specific has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is specific, spelled S-P-E-C-I-F-I-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    typisch, für etwas bezeichnend/kennzeichnend
  2. 2
    genau, präzise

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "specific"?
"specific" is spelled S-P-E-C-I-F-I-C. The IPA pronunciation is [spəˈsɪf.ɪk].
What does "specific" mean?
As an adjective, "specific" means: typisch, für etwas bezeichnend/kennzeichnend
How do you pronounce "specific"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "specific" is [spəˈsɪf.ɪk]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "specific" come from?
"specific" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "specific", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

snickers#50,059staunend#50,073sicherem#50,049Streuner#50,084

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list