Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to an infection not known to be caused by a specific pathogen.
  • adjective Of or relating to immunity that occurs naturally as a result of a person's genetic makeup or physiology and does not arise from a previous infection or vaccination.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective not specific
  • adjective of an infection not caused by a specific pathogen
  • adjective of a person's immunity not caused by previous infection or vaccination
  • adjective of a microscopic stain that does not just stain one type of tissue

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not caused by a specific agent; used also of staining in making microscope slides

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Formerly known as nonspecific vaginitis, or Gardnerella, the name of this disease was changed to bacterial vaginosis BV when researchers discovered how many different strains of bacteria were capable of causing essentially the same type of vaginal infection.

    Getting Pregnant Niels H. Lauersen 2000

  • [24] be called a nonspecific factor - namely, labor.

    Mises Dailies 2009

  • About 20 percent of folks with arachnoid cysts do have headaches, but they're kind of nonspecific and rarely do they require any specific treatment.

    CNN Transcript Dec 28, 2009 2009

  • Scientists have shown that the D-L test was nonspecific, meaning it rendered false positives

    reddit.com: what's new online! 2010

  • That creates problems during standard post-deployment screenings, when returning veterans are asked what the authors called "nonspecific" questions, such as whether they were "dazed" or "confused" at the time of an injury or blast "experience."

    Air Force Times - News 2009

  • That creates problems during standard post-deployment screenings, when returning veterans are asked what the authors called "nonspecific" questions, such as whether they were "dazed" or "confused" at the time of an injury or blast "experience."

    Army Times - News 2009

  • That creates problems during standard post-deployment screenings, when returning veterans are asked what the authors called "nonspecific" questions, such as whether they were "dazed" or "confused" at the time of an injury or blast "experience."

    Marine Corps Times - News 2009

  • Symptoms of depression fall into a category that my medical school mentors called "nonspecific," meaning that they are symptoms often associated with several diseases and are not specifically suggestive of a particular disease.

    FitnessRocks.org drmonte 2008

  • Schizophrenia has been described as a nonspecific disease by the psychiatric profession. [

    Random feeds from Syndic8.com 2009

  • He said the FBI told him the information was "nonspecific," adding that his organization has already implemented the kinds of enhanced security measures that the FBI advised. "

    What's Behind Latest 'Orange Alert' 2007

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