【Special】 ,  【especial】 ,  【specific】 ,  【particular】 ,  【individual】  are closely related terms because all carry the meaning relating to or belonging to one thing or one class especially as distinguished from all the others.

Both  【special】  and  【especial】  imply differences which distinguish the thing so described from others of its kind, and the two can often be interchanged without significant loss. However  【special】 may be preferred when the differences give the thing concerned a quality, character, identity, or use of its own.

Often, in addition,  【special】  implies being out of the ordinary or being conspicuously unusual and therefore comes close to uncommon or exceptional .

【Special】 is also applicable to something added (as to a schedule, a series, or a sequence) for an exceptional or extraordinary purpose, reason, or occasion.

【Especial】 is more likely to be chosen when there is the intent to convey the idea of preeminence or of being such as is described over and above all the others.

【Specific】  (see also EXPLICIT ) basically implies unique and peculiar relationship to a kind or category or 【individual】 .

In some (as philosophical, biological, or critical) uses it can suggest opposition to generic and imply a relation to a 【particular】 species as distinguished from a more comprehensive category to which that species belongs, but in more general use it tends to stress uniquity and to imply a relation to one thing or one 【individual】 as distinguished from all others that can be felt to fall into a category with that one.

However,  【specific】 also may mean no more than explicitly mentioned, or called into or brought forward for consideration.

In this last sense of  【specific】   【particular】  is sometimes preferred on the ground that the term is clearly opposed to general and that it is a close synonym of single (for fuller treatment see SINGLE ).

The differences between the two words in this sense are not easily discoverable, but  【specific】  seems to be chosen more often when the ideas of specification or of illustration are involved, and  【particular】 , when the distinctness of the thing as an 【individual】 is to be suggested; thus, one gives a  【specific】  illustration to indicate a word’s normal use but describes the  【particular】 uses of the word.

【Particular】  is often used also in the sense of  【special】  and  【especial】 . In logic  【particular】  is opposed to universal and applies to matters (as propositions, judgments, and conceptions) which have reference to a single member or to some members of a class rather than to all; thus, "some men are highly intelligent" is a  【particular】  proposition, but "all men make mistakes" is a universal proposition.

Often, in less technical use,  【particular】  implies an opposition to general as well as to universal .

【Individual】 unequivocally implies reference to one of the class or group as clearly distinguished from all the others.