Word.ws English Dictionary

despecificate

despecificate verb: to discriminate; to separate according to specific signification or qualities; to specificate; to desynonymize.

Verb

despecificate (third-person singular simple present despecificates, present participle despecificating, simple past and past participle despecificated)

  1. (rare) To discriminate; to separate according to specific signification or qualities; to specificate; to desynonymize.
    • Inaptitude and ineptitude have been usefully despecificated, and only the latter now imparts folly.1873, Fitzedward Hall, Modern English

Forms of despecificate

third-person singular presentdespecificates
present participledespecificating
past participledespecificated
pastdespecificated

Origin of despecificate

From de- + specificate, with de- acting as an intensifier.

Questions about despecificate

What does despecificate mean?
Despecificate means to discriminate; to separate according to specific signification or qualities; to specificate; to desynonymize.
What part of speech is despecificate?
Despecificate is a verb.
What is the past tense of despecificate?
The past tense of despecificate is despecificated.

Words near despecificate in the dictionary

  1. despeciate
  2. despeciated
  3. despeciates
  4. despeciating
  5. despeciation
  6. despecificate
  7. despecificated
  8. despecificates
  9. despecificating
  10. despecification
  11. despeckle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: despecificate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “despecificate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/despecificate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.