"overspecify" meaning in All languages combined

See overspecify on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˌoʊvɚˈspɛsɪˌfaɪ/ [General-American] Forms: overspecifies [present, singular, third-person], overspecifying [participle, present], overspecified [participle, past], overspecified [past]
Etymology: over- + specify Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|over|specify}} over- + specify Head templates: {{en-verb}} overspecify (third-person singular simple present overspecifies, present participle overspecifying, simple past and past participle overspecified)
  1. To specify in excessive detail.
    Sense id: en-overspecify-en-verb-B9T~9g3e Categories (other): English terms prefixed with over- Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with over-: 34 40 26
  2. To specify excessive capability.
    Sense id: en-overspecify-en-verb-o2BIICT4 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with over- Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 36 56 8 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with over-: 34 40 26
  3. To provide redundant or inconsistent information.
    Sense id: en-overspecify-en-verb-SYE-jU51 Categories (other): English terms prefixed with over- Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with over-: 34 40 26
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: overspecification

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for overspecify meaning in All languages combined (3.6kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "antonym(s) of “specify in excessive detail”",
      "word": "underspecify"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "over",
        "3": "specify"
      },
      "expansion": "over- + specify",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "over- + specify",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "overspecifies",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "overspecifying",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "overspecified",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "overspecified",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "overspecify (third-person singular simple present overspecifies, present participle overspecifying, simple past and past participle overspecified)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "overspecification"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "34 40 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with over-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The customer overspecified the requirements and now we're contractually required to build it this way. Does he think he's an engineer?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1949, “Sponge Rubber”, in Walter E. Burton, editor, Engineering with Rubber, 1st edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, page 389",
          "text": "Manufacturers of sponge-rubber products have noted a tendency for designers and other users to overspecify.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1975, John Whittet, “We Need NEOCS”, in All Hands, number 698, page 50",
          "text": "First, the study group discovered a tendency in the current system to overspecify a billet. For example, to write a billet for a laboratory technician, one could specify rate and rating, as an HM1, one could specify E-6 and NEC-8506, or one could specify both. Obviously, this sort of procedure creates distribution problems which could compound.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To specify in excessive detail."
      ],
      "id": "en-overspecify-en-verb-B9T~9g3e",
      "links": [
        [
          "specify",
          "specify"
        ],
        [
          "excessive",
          "excessive"
        ],
        [
          "detail",
          "detail"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "36 56 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 40 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with over-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "As usual the customer overspecified the requirements, it's like asking for a car that seats 20 and fits in a compact car's parking space."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991 April 1, Gene P. Carlson, “NFPA 1903: Mobile Water Supply Apparatus”, in Fire Engineering",
          "text": "Design your mobile water supply apparatus around the chassis that you intend to use. Don’t overspecify or underspecify the unit.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To specify excessive capability."
      ],
      "id": "en-overspecify-en-verb-o2BIICT4",
      "links": [
        [
          "capability",
          "capability"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "34 40 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with over-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "An overspecified truth table contains at least one decision that will never be executed because it is already specified in a previous decision..."
        },
        {
          "text": "A noun phrase is overspecified when it is used in a context where a pronoun would have been unambiguous."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide redundant or inconsistent information."
      ],
      "id": "en-overspecify-en-verb-SYE-jU51",
      "links": [
        [
          "redundant",
          "redundant"
        ],
        [
          "inconsistent",
          "inconsistent"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌoʊvɚˈspɛsɪˌfaɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "overspecify"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "antonym(s) of “specify in excessive detail”",
      "word": "underspecify"
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    "English 5-syllable words",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms prefixed with over-",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "over",
        "3": "specify"
      },
      "expansion": "over- + specify",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "over- + specify",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "overspecifies",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "overspecifying",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "overspecified",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "overspecified",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "overspecify (third-person singular simple present overspecifies, present participle overspecifying, simple past and past participle overspecified)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "overspecification"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The customer overspecified the requirements and now we're contractually required to build it this way. Does he think he's an engineer?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1949, “Sponge Rubber”, in Walter E. Burton, editor, Engineering with Rubber, 1st edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, page 389",
          "text": "Manufacturers of sponge-rubber products have noted a tendency for designers and other users to overspecify.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1975, John Whittet, “We Need NEOCS”, in All Hands, number 698, page 50",
          "text": "First, the study group discovered a tendency in the current system to overspecify a billet. For example, to write a billet for a laboratory technician, one could specify rate and rating, as an HM1, one could specify E-6 and NEC-8506, or one could specify both. Obviously, this sort of procedure creates distribution problems which could compound.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To specify in excessive detail."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "specify",
          "specify"
        ],
        [
          "excessive",
          "excessive"
        ],
        [
          "detail",
          "detail"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "As usual the customer overspecified the requirements, it's like asking for a car that seats 20 and fits in a compact car's parking space."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991 April 1, Gene P. Carlson, “NFPA 1903: Mobile Water Supply Apparatus”, in Fire Engineering",
          "text": "Design your mobile water supply apparatus around the chassis that you intend to use. Don’t overspecify or underspecify the unit.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To specify excessive capability."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "capability",
          "capability"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "An overspecified truth table contains at least one decision that will never be executed because it is already specified in a previous decision..."
        },
        {
          "text": "A noun phrase is overspecified when it is used in a context where a pronoun would have been unambiguous."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide redundant or inconsistent information."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "redundant",
          "redundant"
        ],
        [
          "inconsistent",
          "inconsistent"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌoʊvɚˈspɛsɪˌfaɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "overspecify"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.