Other forms: specialized, specializing, specializes
To specialize is to concentrate on one particular field. Specialize in tax law, specialized equipment, specialize early.
The trade-off is real: specializing buys depth at the cost of range, and in medicine, law and research it is how careers are built. In biology, a specialized species is fitted to a narrow niche and is the first to suffer when the niche changes. Note the British spelling specialise, which is the same word.
1verbspecializeTo concentrate on one particular field.
“After medical school, she decided to specialize in children's heart surgery.”
specialize is a narrowing of focus.
Also accepted in games: specialise
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
Middle English
especial
English
special
English, today
specialize
From special + -ize. special comes from Middle English especial. From Middle English special, especial, especiall, from Old French especial (whence also French spécial), from Latin speciālis (from speciēs). In this sense displaced native synderlīċ. a doublet of especial.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA