Particularizable

Particularizable is an adjective derived from the noun particular. It describes something that can be turned into a specific instance or that can be fixed in detail. For example, a general principle can be particularizable into a particular case when an applicable example is established. The property of being particularizable is often discussed in philosophy, especially in debates regarding the application of general rules to concrete situations.

The word is most commonly found in legal, logical and statistical contexts. In law a rule may be particularizable if it can be applied to a specific defendant or case; in logic a universal proposition is particularizable when it yields a particular proposition for a given subject; in statistics a hypothesis may be particularizable when it can be tested with specific data. The term also appears in computer science when specifying that an abstract model can be instantiated to a concrete program or object.

Etymologically, particularizable comes from the Latin particula, meaning a small particle or part, combined with the English suffix -izable, indicating capability. Although the word is recognised by some dictionaries, it is considered somewhat technical and not common in everyday speech. It is sometimes replaced by phrases such as "capable of being specified" or "subject to specification."

The concept is related to terms such as particularity, generality, specificity and concretization, which concern the relationship between abstract generalised factors and their concrete manifestations.