1 [usuallybeforenoun] not ordinary or usual; different from what is normal:
The school will only allow this in special circumstances. * Some of the officials have special privileges. * There is something special about this place. * This type of wood needs special treatment.
2 more important than others; deserving or getting more attention than usual:
What are your special interests? * She's a very special friend. * Our special guest on next week's show will be... * Don't lose it-it's special.
3 organized or intended for a particular purpose:
a special event / occasion * These teachers need special training. * Dr Pearce is the special adviser on environmental issues.
4 used by or intended for one particular person or group of people:
She has a special way of smiling. * He sent a special message to the men.
5 [onlybeforenoun] better or more than usual:
As an only child she got special attention. * Please take special care of it.
compareESPECIAL
Part of speech: noun
1 something that is not usually available but is provided for a particular purpose or on one occasion:
an election-night special on television * The menu changes regularly and there are daily specials to choose from.
2 (informal, especially AmE) a price for a particular product in a shop/store or restaurant that is lower than usual:
There's a special on coffee this week.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for special is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is special a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, special is tagged as adjective.
Does special appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — special appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
