Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » characteristic

characteristic

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

Characteristic is defined as a quality or trait.

(noun)

An example of characteristic is intelligence.

The definition of characteristic is a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

(adjective)

An example of characteristic is the high levels of intelligence of a valedictorian.

See characteristic in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective

of or constituting the special character; typical; distinctive: the characteristic odor of cabbage

Origin: Gr charaktēristikos: see character

noun

a distinguishing trait, feature, or quality; peculiarity
the whole number, or integral part, of a logarithm, as distinguished from the mantissa: 4 is the characteristic of the logarithm 4.7193

Related Forms:

characteristically adverb

See characteristic in American Heritage Dictionary 4

adjective

Being a feature that helps to distinguish a person or thing; distinctive: heard my friend's characteristic laugh; the stripes that are characteristic of the zebra.

noun

A feature that helps to identify, tell apart, or describe recognizably; a distinguishing mark or trait.
Mathematics The integral part of a logarithm as distinguished from the mantissa: The characteristic of the logarithm 6.3214 is 6.
Mathematics The least number of times the multiplicative identity in a ring needs to be added to itself to reach the additive identity, or, if the additive identity is never reached, zero. The integers have a characteristic of zero; the integers modulus 12 have a characteristic of 12.

Related Forms: