characteristic
- Also char·ac·ter·is·ti·cal. 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.
- a distinguishing feature or quality: Generosity is his chief characteristic.
- Mathematics.
- the integral part of a common logarithm.Compare mantissa.
- the exponent of 10 in a number expressed in scientific notation.
- the smallest positive integer n such that each element of a given ring added to itself n times results in 0.
Origin of characteristic
Synonyms for characteristic
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words for characteristics
style, essence, tendency, nature, attribute, component, peculiarity, virtue, aspect, temperament, tone, flavor, quality, symptom, personality, streak, bearing, individuality, bent, pointExamples from the Web for characteristics
Contemporary Examples of characteristics
This is exciting because it seems that this turmeric compound can enhance the characteristics of NSCs.
Fish Oil, Turmeric, and Ginseng, Oh My! Are ‘Brain Foods’ B.S.?Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD
October 10, 2014
The association was statistically significant and held up even when adjusted for age and other characteristics.
Subject has athletic build, calloused knuckles, broken nose – characteristics of martial arts practitioners.
I heard so much about him, and everyone says that I inherited a lot of characteristics from him.
In psychological terms, these characteristics are found in sociopaths and narcissists.
Historical Examples of characteristics
What characteristics of cereals make them valuable in the diet?
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 1Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
All these characteristics are lacking in the works after "Timon."
The Man ShakespeareFrank Harris
These characteristics gave him a somewhat formidable aspect.
Casanova's HomecomingArthur Schnitzler
And force, all force has two characteristics: it desires to do, it wishes to think.
Initiation into PhilosophyEmile Faguet
Her features were without noticeable American characteristics.
Bride of the MistletoeJames Lane Allen
characteristic
- a distinguishing quality, attribute, or trait
- maths
- the integral part of a common logarithm, indicating the order of magnitude of the associated numberthe characteristic of 2.4771 is 2 Compare mantissa
- another name for exponent, used esp in number representation in computing
- indicative of a distinctive quality, etc; typical
Word Origin and History for characteristics
characteristic
characteristic
(kăr′ək-tə-rĭs′tĭk)- A distinguishing feature or attribute; character.
- A structure or function determined by a gene or genes; trait.
characteristic
- 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. Compare mantissa.