characteristic

American  

[kar-ik-tuh-ris-tik] / ˌkær ɪk təˈrɪs tɪk /

adjective

1. Also characteristical. pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive.

   Red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn.

   Synonyms:

   peculiar, special

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noun

characteristics plural

1. a distinguishing feature or quality.

   Generosity is his chief characteristic.

   Synonyms:

   trait, property, attribute

2. Mathematics.

   1. the integral part of a common logarithm.

   2. the exponent of 10 in a number expressed in scientific notation.

   3. the smallest positive integer n such that each element of a given ring added to itself n times results in 0.

characteristic British  

/ ˌkærɪktəˈrɪstɪk /

noun

1. a distinguishing quality, attribute, or trait

2. maths

   1. the integral part of a common logarithm, indicating the order of magnitude of the associated number Compare mantissa

      the characteristic of 2.4771 is 2

   2. another name for exponent, used esp in number representation in computing

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adjective

1. indicative of a distinctive quality, etc; typical

characteristic Scientific  

/ kăr′ək-tə-rĭs′tĭk /

1. The part of a logarithm to the base 10 that is to the left of the decimal point. For example, if 2.749 is a logarithm, 2 is the characteristic.

2. Compare mantissa

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Synonym Usage

See feature.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noncharacteristic
  adjective
• quasi-characteristic
  adjective
• uncharacteristic
  adjective
• characteristically
  adverb
• noncharacteristically
  adverb
• quasi-characteristically
  adverb
• uncharacteristically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• characteristics
  plural

Etymology

Origin of characteristic

First recorded in 1655–65; from Greek charaktēristikós ( see character, -istic)

Explanation

If something is a characteristic of someone or something, it is a feature you would expect. A characteristic of classical-style architecture is large stone columns. A characteristic of poodles is their pom-pom like tails. A characteristic feature needn't just be a something physically apparent, it can describe a type of personality or atmosphere as well, as in: "The characteristic of all funeral homes is their gloomy air." As their spelling and meaning implies, there is a close link between the words characteristic and character, meaning the essential nature of a thing, and in fact both words come from the ancient Greek kharackter, meaning a "symbol or imprint on the soul."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

characteristic characteristics

Petersen-Smith said that, in the context of the global war on terror, the term low boil is useful because it describes a type of second stage that has been characteristic of recent U.S. wars.

From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026

In characteristic fashion, Stokes was in the middle of a tireless spell on Sunday, attempting to haul his team back into the third Test, when the news broke.

From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026

Hemani instead insists that courts examine not merely whether two laws share a surface characteristic but whether they target the same conduct, pursue the same objectives, and operate in roughly the same way.

From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2026

While engineers have spent decades trying to create “explainable AI,” a defining characteristic of today’s large language models is that they remain biased black boxes that are capricious in their decision-making.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026

As time went on he lost weight, suffered extreme fatigue, and experienced a peculiar muscular weakness, a characteristic effect of malathion.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Gold’s structural characteristics continue to make it an effective hedge against sovereign risk, persistent inflation, and geopolitical uncertainty, while central bank buying should provide long-term support to gold prices, she adds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

EEA studies compare an event's characteristics, such as its probability and intensity in the current climate, to a "counterfactual" world without human-caused emissions.

From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026

Together, these characteristics allow the bacteria to concentrate where tumors are located while avoiding normal tissues.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026

However, the fossil that led to the discovery of the new species was a recovered dorsal vertebra — a bone from the middle or upper back — which showed distinctive characteristics.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

I did not speak the language of biology or understand the characteristics that grouped one shark with another.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

Related Words

• aspect
• attribute
• component
• essence
• flavor
• nature
• peculiarity
• personality
• quality
• style
• symptom
• temperament
• tendency
• tone
• virtue