professional vs specialist

professional

noun
  • A person who belongs to a profession 

  • A reputation known by name 

  • A prostitute 

  • An expert 

  • One of four categories of sociologist propounded by Horowitz: a sociologist who is actively concerned with promoting the profession of sociology. 

  • A person who earns their living from a specified activity 

adj
  • Expert. 

  • Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession. 

  • That is carried out for money, especially as a livelihood. 

specialist

noun
  • Someone who is an expert in, or devoted to, some specific branch of study or research. 

  • A stenotopic species. 

  • A physician whose practice is limited to a particular branch of medicine or surgery. 

  • Any of several non-commissioned ranks corresponding to that of corporal. 

  • An organism that is specialized for a particular environment. 

adj
  • Specialised, involving detailed knowledge of a restricted topic. 

How often have the words professional and specialist occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )