overspecific

English

Etymology

over- +‎ specific

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvəspɪˈsɪfɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌoʊvɚspɪˈsɪfɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪfɪk
• Hyphenation: o‧ver‧spe‧cif‧ic

Adjective

overspecific (comparative more overspecific, superlative most overspecific)

1. Too specific; with too much detail.
   • 1918, Homer A. Watt, “The Wisconsin Course in the Composition of Technical Papers”, in Bulletin of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, volume VIII, number 3, page 119:

     Moreover, the course in technical writing cannot be called narrow and overspecific inasmuch as the elements composing it remain constant, and the training which it gives the students is of permanent value regardless of any advance in engineering science.

   • 2013, James H. Kleiger, Disordered Thinking and the Rorschach: Theory, Research, and Differential Diagnosis, Routledge, →ISBN, page 182:

     Rorschach confabulations can be excessively broad or narrow in scope. They might involve the unfolding of a dramatic elaboration or a lengthy tangential or circumstantial commentary, on the one hand; or they may be crisply overspecific, on the other.

   • 2017, Ryan J. Urbanowicz, Will N. Browne, Introduction to Learning Classifier Systems, Springer, →ISBN, page 29:

     However, it is important to understand that overgeneral and overspecific rules can emerge and play a role in solving both clean and noisy problems.

Related terms

• overspecificity