specialization

[ spesh-uh-luh-zey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act of specializing, or pursuing a particular line of study or work:

   Medical students with high student loans often feel driven into specialization.

2. Biology. the adaptation of an organism or organ to a special function or environment:

   Basic biology suggests the selective pressures leading to convergent evolutionary specialization among desert-dwelling species.

3. the act of being restricted to some specific, or the act of becoming specialized.

Other Words From

• de·special·i·zation noun
• nonspe·cial·i·zation noun
• subspe·cial·i·zation noun
• super·special·i·zation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of specialization¹

specializ(e) + -ation

Example Sentences

So at one level, it becomes just another job specialization.

From The Daily Beast

Wilson: Yes, I build virtual worlds to see how people use exchange, specialization, and property to create wealth.

From The Daily Beast

It took me to the Persian Gulf for my first exposure to the region that has become my professional specialization.

From The Daily Beast

The biological phase of the sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of that specialization.

From Project Gutenberg

This is specialization, and implies advance among animals as it does in civilization.

From Project Gutenberg

We may even set them down to ignorance rather than specialization of interest.

From Project Gutenberg

This specialization may extend to functions other than sexual, to work (bees, ants) to war (termites).

From Project Gutenberg

On the other side—inferior women blasted and withered by their specialization in the emotional life of youth!

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• activity
• art
• duty
• employment
• endeavor
• industry
• job
• office
• practice
• responsibility
• skill
• task
• thing
• trade