attribute Hear it!

attribute Definition

at·trib·ute (ə trib′yo̵̅o̅t; for n. a′trə byo̵̅o̅t′)

transitive verb -·uted, -·ut·ing

  1. to set down or think of as belonging to, produced by, resulting from, or originating in; assign or ascribe (to) the play is attributed to Shakespeare
  2. to ascribe as a quality or characteristic

Etymology: < L attributus, pp. of attribuere, to assign < ad-, to + tribuere, to assign < tribus: see tribe

noun

  1. a characteristic or quality of a person or thing
  2. an object used in literature or art as a symbol for a person, office, etc. winged feet are the attribute of Mercury
  3. Gram. a word or phrase used adjectivally

attribute Related Forms

at·trib′·ut·able (-yo̵̅o̅t ə bəl) adjective at′·tri·bu′·tion (a′trə byo̵̅o̅′s̸hən) noun

attribute Synonyms

attribute

n.

quality, trait, property; see characteristic, quality 1. See syn. study atquality.

attribute Synonyms

attribute

v.

ascribe, credit, impute, assign, refer to, trace to, connect, give credit, accredit, associate, attach, put down to, set down to, lay to, apply to, fix upon, account for, point to, blame, chalk up to, lay at one's door*; see also accuse.

Antonyms deny*, dissociate*, absolve.

attribute implies assignment of a quality, factor, or responsibility that may reasonably be regarded as applying or belonging to someone or something to attribute an error to carelessness; ascribe implies assignment of something that may reasonably be deduced to ascribe a motive to someone; impute usually implies the assignment of something unfavorable or accusatory to impute evil to someone; assign, in this comparison, implies the placement of something in a particular category because of some quality or characteristic attributed to it to assign a poem to the 17th century; credit implies belief in the possession of some quality or the responsibility for some action, often of a commendable nature to credit someone with intelligence; attach implies the connection of something with something else as being appropriate to it different people attach different meanings to words

attribute Usage Examples

Object

  • blame: Attributing blame for some past disaster is rarely useful.
  • authorship: National Audubon Society, Inc. shall have no duty to attribute authorship of the posting to the posting party.

Converse of object

  • possess: Not everyone who performs well with his weapon possesses this attribute.
  • align: Here we only discuss the meaning of the align attribute for text.
  • inherit: The created image inherits the attributes of the NDF called template.
  • specify: The names inside the entity boxes, below the entity name, specify attributes that belong to that entity.
  • deprecate: The deprecated ALIGN attribute suggests the horizontal alignment for the heading on visual browsers.
  • define: The defining attribute of God manifest in the world is omnipresence.

Adjective modifier

  • alt: Two sites did contain images where the alt attribute has been used.
  • lang: When used together with the lang attribute, it implies a translated version of the document.
  • desirable: Other desirable attributes would include analog and digital circuit design, AutoCad, networking and an understanding of the Marine environment.
  • divine: Like the features of size, longevity and beauty, the utility of trees adds to the perception that they have divine attributes.
  • optional: To do this, a comparator object has an optional attribute called Skip which is a reference to a hash.
  • read-only: You can use the attrib command to remove the read-only attribute from the destination directory.

Modifies a noun

value: Within a particular knowledge attribute value, each Access Point has a flag to indicate whether it is the master or a shadow reference.

Noun used with modifier

  • href: Note that the href attribute in each source anchor specifies the address of the destination anchor with a URI.
  • longdesc: For circumstances such as in our medical chart example we have been provided a more powerful method with the longdesc attribute.
  • xml:lang: This attribute is used similar to the xml:lang attribute detailed in the XML 1.0 Specification ( Third Edition ).
  • charset: Note the use of the charset attribute for the Arabic manual.
  • id: The " hidden " input element has id attribute option.