"special case" meaning in English

See special case in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: special cases [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} special case (plural special cases)
  1. A specialized instance of a more general phenomenon, category, etc.
    A class of phenomena that is a subset of a more general class.
    Translations (class of phenomena that is a subset of a more general class): særtilfælde [neuter] (Danish), erikoistapaus (Finnish), erityistapaus (Finnish), cas particulier [masculine] (French), specialfall [neuter] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-special_case-en-noun-jc6RfdHj Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 10 10 42 Disambiguation of 'class of phenomena that is a subset of a more general class': 86 7 7
  2. A specialized instance of a more general phenomenon, category, etc.
    A theorem or other statement that follows directly from a more general statement.
    Translations (theorem or other statement that follows directly from a more general truth): særtilfælde [neuter] (Danish), erikoistapaus (Finnish), erityistapaus (Finnish), specialfall [neuter] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-special_case-en-noun-0rVK0F7o Disambiguation of 'theorem or other statement that follows directly from a more general truth': 7 86 7
  3. A specialized instance of a more general phenomenon, category, etc.
    Sense id: en-special_case-en-noun-Vx8UOzYL
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: specific, specificity, specify

Verb

Forms: special cases [present, singular, third-person], special casing [participle, present], special cased [participle, past], special cased [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb}} special case (third-person singular simple present special cases, present participle special casing, simple past and past participle special cased)
  1. (transitive, intransitive, chiefly programming) To treat something as a special case; to handle in an explicitly different way. Tags: intransitive, transitive Categories (topical): Programming Synonyms: special-case
    Sense id: en-special_case-en-verb-4Ck8XOc6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 10 10 42 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, programming, sciences

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for special case meaning in English (6.4kB)

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          "text": "Habermas, e.g., put forward that the legal discourse should not be understood as a special case of the moral discourse because in law next to moral reasons there are also ethical and pragmatic reasons to play a legitimate part (J. Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 230 ff.).",
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      "code": "da",
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      "sense": "class of phenomena that is a subset of a more general class",
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        "neuter"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.

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