particular

Meanings

Adjective

• Pertaining only to a part of something; partial.
• Specific; discrete; concrete.
• Specialised; characteristic of a specific person or thing.
• Known only to an individual person or group; confidential.
• Distinguished in some way; special (often in negative constructions).
• Of a person, concerned with, or attentive to, details; fastidious.
• Concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; circumstantial; precise.
• Containing a part only; limited.
• Holding a particular estate.
• Forming a part of a genus; relatively limited in extension; affirmed or denied of a part of a subject.

Noun

• A small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point.
• A person's own individual case.
• A particular case; an individual thing as opposed to a whole class. (Opposed to generals, universals.)

Origin

• 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.