particular
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L325095 on Wikidata ↗adjective
- identifying one aspect
- unique (to an entity/locale)
- choosy, picky, expressing with great detail
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /pəˈtɪk.jʊ.lə/ / /pəˈtɪk.jə.lə/ / /pɚˈtɪk.jə.lɚ/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English particuler, from Anglo-Norman particuler, Middle French particuler, particulier, from Late Latin particularis (“partial; separate, individual”), from Latin particula (“(small) part”). Equivalent to particle + -ar. Compare particle.
- Pertaining only to a part of something; partial.
- Specific; discrete; concrete.
“I couldn't find the particular model you asked for, but I hope this one will do.”
“We knew it was named after John Smith, but nobody knows which particular John Smith.”
- Specialised; characteristic of a specific person or thing.
“I don't appreciate your particular brand of cynicism.”
“wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth”
- Known only to an individual person or group; confidential.
“or these domesticke and particular broiles, Are not the question heere.”
- Distinguished in some way; special (often in negative constructions).
“My five favorite places are, in no particular order, New York, Chicago, Paris, San Francisco and London.”
“I didn't have any particular interest in the book.”
- Of a person, concerned with, or attentive to, details; fastidious.
“He is very particular about his food and if it isn't cooked to perfection he will send it back.”
“These women are more particular about their appearance.”
- Concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; circumstantial; precise.
“a full and particular account of an accident”
- Containing a part only; limited.
“a particular estate, or one precedent to an estate in remainder”
- Holding a particular estate.
“a particular tenant”
- Forming a part of a genus; relatively limited in extension; affirmed or denied of a part of a subject.
“a particular proposition, opposed to "universal", e.g. (particular affirmative) "Some men are wise"; (particular negative) "Some men are not wise".”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English particuler, from Anglo-Norman particuler, Middle French particuler, particulier, from Late Latin particularis (“partial; separate, individual”), from Latin particula (“(small) part”). Equivalent to particle + -ar. Compare particle.
- A small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point.
“I did not omit even our Sports and Paſtimes, or any other Particular which I thought might redound to the Honour of my Country.”
- A person's own individual case.
“Since philosophy could never find any way for tranquillity that might be generally good, let every man in his particular seeke for it.”
“temporal blessings, whether such as concern the public[…]or such as concern our particular”
- A particular case; an individual thing as opposed to a whole class. (Opposed to generals, universals.)
“When we examine common words, we find that, broadly speaking, proper names stand for particulars, while other substantives, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs stand for universals.”