Word.ws English Dictionary

non-specific

non-specific is the alternative form of nonspecific.

Meaning of nonspecific

Adjective

nonspecific (not comparable)

  1. Not specific to one possible cause; caused by any of various possible causes.
    • See also: nonspecific symptom, specificity
    Antonyms:
    pathognomonic
  2. Not specific to one pathogen; affecting multiple strains or species of pathogen.
  3. Not known to be caused by any specific pathogen.
  4. Not caused by previous infection or vaccination, and/or affecting more than one antigen.
  5. That does not just stain one type of tissue.

Origin of non-specific

From non- + specific.

Questions about non-specific

What is non-specific the alternative form of?
Non-specific is the alternative form of nonspecific.

Words near non-specific in the dictionary

  1. non-SPEC
  2. non-specialist
  3. non-specialists
  4. non-speciesist
  5. non-speciesists
  6. non-specific
  7. non-split
  8. non-squamous
  9. non-stack
  10. non-staffed
  11. non-standard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: non-specific (page history and authors); nonspecific (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.

Last updated:

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