A specimen is a portion/quantity of material for use in testing, examination, or study.
- Biology
A laboratory specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, a plant, part of a plant, or a microorganism, used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or subspecies. When a taxon is described, it is typically based on a single specimen, then referred to as the holotype.
- Medical laboratory
- A sample taken from a patient, most frequently blood, urine, or semen.
- Geology
- A piece of a type of rock or mineral taken from the earth. This can be anything from a jasper to a diamond.
- Typography
- A type specimen is a publication that shows the available glyphs in a typeface, including variations used for ligatures and special ornaments.
- In handwriting recognition, forensic handwriting analysis and signature verification, the term sample refers to a specimen of handwriting.
- Finance
- Central Banks send so-called specimen banknote (or specimens) to other banks before issuing a new banknote. To avoid its use as a legal tender note the banknote is perforated or punched, given a serial number of 0.9999999999 (all nines) or 0000000000 (all zeroes) or is overprinted with the word Specimen or Cancelled in any language.
Famous quotes containing the word specimen:
“The rare,
Uninteresting specimen might still be putting out shoots, for all we know.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Every young sculptor seems to think that he must give the world some specimen of indecorous womanhood, and call it Eve, Venus, a Nymph, or any name that may apologize for a lack of decent clothing.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)