specification
    n 1: a detailed description of design criteria for a piece of
         work [syn: specification, spec]
    2: naming explicitly
    3: (patent law) a document drawn up by the applicant for a
       patent of invention that provides an explicit and detailed
       description of the nature and use of an invention
    4: a restriction that is insisted upon as a condition for an
       agreement [syn: stipulation, specification]

specification \spec`i*fi*ca"tion\
   (sp[e^]s`[i^]*f[i^]*k[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [Cf. F.
   sp['e]cification, LL. specificatio.]
   1. The act of specifying or determining by a mark or limit;
      notation of limits.
      [1913 Webster]

            This specification or limitation of the question
            hinders the disputers from wandering away from the
            precise point of inquiry.             --I. Watts.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The designation of particulars; particular mention; as,
      the specification of a charge against an officer.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A written statement containing a minute description or
      enumeration of particulars, as of charges against a public
      officer, the terms of a contract, the description of an
      invention, as in a patent; also, a single article, item,
      or particular, an allegation of a specific act, as in a
      charge of official misconduct.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A detailed listing or description of the required
      properties of some object proposed to be built or bought;
      -- usually used in the plural; as, the building
      specifications require that it withstand an earthquake of
      magnitude 8; the program specifications require an option
      to change the menus.
      [PJC]

specification
spec

    (spec) A document describing how some system should
   work.

   (2001-02-06)

SPECIFICATION, civil law. A term used in the civil law, by which is meant a 
person's making a new species or subject from materials belonging to 
another. Bouv. Inst. Theolo. ps. 1, c. 1, art. 1, Sec. 4, Is. 4, p. 74. 
     2. When the new species can be again reduced to the matter of which it 
was made, the law considers the former mass as still existing, and, 
therefore, the new species as an accessory to the former subject; but where 
the thing made cannot be so reduced, as in the case of wine, which cannot be 
again turned into grapes, there is no place for the fictio juris; and, 
there, the workmanship draws after it the property of the material. Inst. 2, 
1, 25 Dig. 41, 1, 7, 7. See Accession; Confusion; Mixtion; and Aso & Man. 
Inst. B. 2, t. 2, c. 8. 

SPECIFICATION, practice, contracts. A particular and detailed account of a 
thing: example, in order to obtain a patent for an invention, it is 
necessary to file a specification or an instrument of writing, which must 
lay open and disclose to the public every part of the process by which the 
invention can be made useful if the specification does not contain the whole 
truth relative to the discovery, or contains more than is requisite to 
produce the desired effect, and the concealment or addition was made for the 
purpose of deception, the patent would be void; for if the specification 
were insufficient on account of its want of clearness, exactitude or good 
faith, it would be a fraud on society that the patentee should obtain a 
monopoly without giving up his invention. 2 Kent, Com. 300; 1 Bell's Com. 
part 2, c. 3, s. 1, p. 112; Perpigna on Pat. 67; Renouard, Des Brevets 
d'Inv. 252. 
     2. In charges against persons accused of military offences, they must 
be particularly described and clearly expressed; this is called the 
specification. Tytl. on Courts Mart. 109.