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

Current and former employees said Coplan’s reaction, which hasn’t previously been reported, was characteristic of his plan for Polymarket—growth at all costs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026

As we looked more closely at the anatomy, we began to identify a combination of features characteristic of Diplodocus species.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

"The smell is like decaying wood being burned – that's the characteristic smell of peat. And that peat contains decomposed wood and organic material from many different sources."

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026

In other words, changes in one characteristic could limit how much another characteristic is able to change.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

Both thus missed its essential characteristic: that it systematically employed the test of experience.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Scientists also need to determine what kind of internal structure could account for all of its unusual characteristics at once.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

The author looks at such characteristics in his individual profiles, but he doesn’t report any studies that examine them across many cases, possibly because they don’t lend themselves to social-scientific measurement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

It is legal to hire based on looks as long as it isn’t tied to one of those protected characteristics, and physical attractiveness has always featured prominently in fashion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

As this happens, the cancer cells lose some of their glandular characteristics and begin adopting other cellular identities.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026

In terms of mutual interests, I figured we could spend the rest of our lives discussing how much we hated the aforementioned characteristics.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Related Words

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