particular
/pəˈtɪkjʊlə
/adjective
1 [attributive] Used to single out an individual member of a specified group or class: the action seems to discriminate against a particular group of companies...
- Do individual members have particular styles of which they're in charge?
- Why do individuals, societies and particular classes or ethnic groups eat specific foods?
- One particular family member of mine has never been single, as long as I've been alive.
Synonyms
specific, certain, distinct, separate, isolated;
single, individual, peculiar, discrete, definite, express, precise
1.1 Logic Denoting a proposition in which something is asserted of some but not all of a class. Contrasted with universal.
2 [attributive] Especially great or intense: when handling or checking cash the cashier should exercise particular care...
- Take particular care when negotiating sharp bends, or features like railway bridges, which are more likely to be iced up
- Organisations such as Samaritans have long sought to persuade the media that reporting suicide calls for particular care.
- Tertiary students should pay particular care when drinking, says Bradbury.
Synonyms
special, extra special, especial, exceptional, unusual, marked, singular, uncommon, notable, noteworthy, remarkable, outstanding, unique
formal peculiar
3Insisting that something should be correct or suitable in every detail; fastidious: she is very particular about cleanliness...
- I get teased by all my colleagues for being so particular about the cleanliness of the shop.
- They are very particular about their records round here.
- People are very particular about the interiors of their cars too.
Synonyms
fussy, fastidious, meticulous, punctilious, discriminating, selective, painstaking, exacting, demanding, critical, over-particular, over-fastidious, finicky, faddish, finical, dainty
informal pernickety, choosy, picky
British informal faddy
archaic nice
noun
1A detail: he is wrong in every particular...
- He said he must have his men smart in every particular.
- It was Gyric; it was him in every particular; but it was as if Gyric were whole again.
- That is not to say that users must agree with the editor in every particular.
Synonyms
detail, item, point, fine point, specific, specification, element, aspect, respect, regard, particularity, fact, feature, circumstance, thing
1.1 (particulars) Detailed information about someone or something: a clerk took the woman’s particulars...
- If the relevant interest is defined, as I at the moment think it should be, in terms of receiving information about the particulars of the court case, then the issue of relevance is irrelevant.
- Don't worry about it, Matty'll inform you on the particulars of your assignment tomorrow night.
- The particulars and information so furnished shall, if the entry of the relevant ship be accepted, be deemed to form the basis of the contract of insurance between the Member or applicant and the Club.
2 Philosophy An individual item, as contrasted with a universal quality: universals can be simultaneously exemplified by different particulars in different places...
- In Chapter 19, I examine various accounts of the first of these distinctions and raise the question of whether we really need to include both universals and particulars in our ontology.
- Philosophers who agree with a conception of events as particulars typically distinguish different sorts of such particulars.
- A third implication of a place-based philosophy has to do with the connection between universal qualities and their particulars.
Phrases
in particular
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French particuler, from Latin particularis 'concerning a small part', from particula 'small part'.