specimen
part of speech
noun (a specimen, specimens)
meaning for a pupil
1) A specimen is one example of a plant, animal, rock or other thing that is collected and studied, for example in a museum or lab. tree →
2) A specimen is a small amount of blood, urine or other body matter that a doctor tests. tree →
3) (informal, joking) A «fine specimen» is a good or funny example of a person or animal. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons specimens are collected, labelled, measured and looked at under a microscope; museums keep specimens of fossils, insects and birds. In health it is a sample a doctor tests. Phrases: a specimen jar, a rock specimen, collect specimens, a fine specimen.
examples
- We collected leaf specimens for our science project. tree →
- The museum has a specimen of a giant beetle. tree →
- The nurse asked for a urine specimen. tree →
- Look at the specimen under the microscope. tree →
- That dinosaur bone is a rare specimen. tree →
- Each rock specimen was labelled with its name and where it was found. tree →
- What a fine specimen of a pumpkin! tree →
- I should have liked to preserve a specimen. tree →
note
Plural: specimens. Stress on the first syllable: SPEH-si-men. «Specimen» and «sample» are close; a sample is usually a small part taken from something bigger. In maths problems: «each box holds 12 specimens» — count them like other objects.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «specimen» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.