Specialties

How to spell specialties

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce specialties

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does specialties mean?

1. nounThings a person, business, or place is especially known or skilled at, such as signature products, dishes, or fields of expertise.

Specialties in a sentence

• The bistro lists its regional specialties on a chalkboard by the door.

• The hospital recruits doctors across a dozen medical specialties.

Where does specialties come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin specialis, meaning 'individual' or 'particular', which was built on species, 'a kind, sort, or appearance'. The singular noun arrived in English through Old French especialte during the 1300s, originally meaning a special quality or a particular distinction. Over time the sense narrowed to the thing a person, shop, or region does especially well, such as a chef's signature dish or a doctor's branch of medicine. The plural simply adds -es to the singular specialty, and the spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle: the -cial- is sounded as 'shul', which tempts writers toward wrong vowels, and British writers must also resist their own rival form 'specialities'. The same special root still powers everyday relatives like 'especially' and 'specialise', all tracing back to that Latin idea of something set apart as particular.

How the word is built

• special (from Latin specialis: individual, particular)
• -ty (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural)