specialty

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/ See IPA manual

Freq #7682

Meanings

1

noun
A subject or skill that someone knows a lot about or is very good at.

French cooking is her specialty.
2

noun
A food or product that a place is especially known for.

Fresh seafood is a specialty of this coastal town.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a subject or skill that... specialism fortestrong point

Word family

Forms specialties

Derived forms interspecialtymultispecialtynonspecialty

Related forms specialist subspecialist subspecialty

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

specialty store
a shop that concentrates on one particular kind of product

Noun + noun

Etymology

From Middle English specialte, Old French specialte, especialte, from Latin specialitas.

specialte Middle English specialitas Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# specialty

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/
**Frequency rank:** 7682

## Meanings
1. A subject or skill that someone knows a lot about or is very good at.
2. A food or product that a place is especially known for.

## Examples
- French cooking is her specialty.
- Fresh seafood is a specialty of this coastal town.

## Derived Forms
- interspecialty
- multispecialty
- nonspecialty

## Related Forms
- specialist
- subspecialist
- subspecialty

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: specialte
- Root: specialitas

## Etymology
From Middle English specialte, Old French specialte, especialte, from Latin specialitas.

## AI Etymology
Specialty is from Middle English specialte, Old French specialte, especialte, from Latin specialitas. Important forms in the word's history include Middle English specialte, Old French specialte, Latin specialitas. In current use it includes senses such as A subject or skill that someone knows a lot about or is very good at and A food or product that a place is especially known for.

## Topics
- People & Society

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