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Characteristic

//ˌkæɹəktəˈɹɪstɪk// adj, noun

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

    "All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion […] such talk had been distressingly out of place."

Adjective
  1. 1
    typical or distinctive wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior.
  2. 2
    a distinguishing quality; a feature that can be used to identify something wordnet
  3. 3
    The integer part of a logarithm.

    "It is evident, moreover, that as the logarithms of numbers, which are tenfold, the one of the other, do not differ except in their characteristics, it is sufficient that the tables contain the fractional parts only of the logarithms."

  4. 4
    any measurable property of a device measured under closely specified conditions wordnet
  5. 5
    The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    a prominent attribute or aspect of something wordnet
  2. 7
    For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together yield the additive identity (0) or, if no such number exists, the number 0.

    "The characteristic of a field, if non-zero, must be a prime number."

  3. 8
    the integer part (positive or negative) of the representation of a logarithm; in the expression ‘log 643 = 2.808’ the characteristic is 2 wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek χαρακτηριστικός (kharaktēristikós), from χαρακτηρίζω (kharaktērízō, “to designate by a characteristic mark”), from χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “a mark, character”). By surface analysis, character + -istic.

Etymology 2

From Ancient Greek χαρακτηριστικός (kharaktēristikós), from χαρακτηρίζω (kharaktērízō, “to designate by a characteristic mark”), from χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “a mark, character”). By surface analysis, character + -istic.

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