The process in which a relatively unspecialized precursor cell acquires specialized features of a lymphocyte. A lymphocyte is a leukocyte commonly found in the blood and lymph that has the characteristics of a large nucleus, a neutral staining cytoplasm, and prominent heterochromatin. [ GOC:go_curators http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CL_0000542 ]
Synonyms: lymphocyte cell differentiation lymphocytic blood cell differentiation
Term information
Note that immunologists typically use the word 'development' to refer to cells of B or T cell lineages undergoing the process that GO describes as 'cell differentiation'.