noun.
A part or an individual taken as exemplifying a whole mass or number: something that represents or illustrates all of its kind; an illustrative example: as, a collection of geological specimens; a wild specimen of the human or of the feline race; a specimen page of a book (a page shown as a specimen of what the whole is or is to be); a specimen copy of a medal.
noun.
In zoology and botany, an individual animal or plant, or some part of one, prepared and preserved for scientific examination; an example of a species or other group; a preparation: as, a specimen of natural history; a specimen of the dog or the rose. Abbreviated sp. and spec.
noun.
A typical individual; one serving as a specially striking or exaggerated example of the kind indicated.
noun.
Synonyms Specimen, Sample. A specimen is a part of a larger whole employed to exhibit the nature or kind of that of which it forms a part, without reference to the relative quality of individual portions; thus, a cabinet of mineralogical specimens exhibits the nature of the rocks from which they are broken. A sample is a part taken out of a quantity, and implies that the quality of the whole is to be judged by it, and not rarely that it is to be used as a standard for testing the goodness, genuineness, or purity of the whole, and the like. In many cases, however, the words are used indifferently. Sample is more often used in trade: as, a sample of cotton or coffee.