Define the word characteristics

Словосочетания

heritable characteristics like skin and eye and hair color — такие наследственные характеристики, как цвет кожи, глаз и волос  
the physical characteristics of the earth — физические характеристики Земли  
ablative characteristics — абляционные характеристики теплозащиты  
time-domain characteristics — характеристики во временной области; временные характеристики  
acceleration characteristics — разгонные характеристики; характеристики разгона  
drainage characteristics — дренажные характеристики  
electrical dynamic characteristics — электро-динамические характеристики  
edibility characteristics — пищевые качества; пищевые качение  
elasticity characteristics — характеристики эластичности; характеристики упругости  
elevation characteristics — характеристики профиля местности  
energetic characteristics — энергетические характеристики  
establish the characteristics — устанавливать характеристики  

Примеры с переводом

Возможные однокоренные слова

characteristic  — характеристика, особенность, характерный, типичный

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek χαρακτηριστικός (kharaktēristikós), from χαρακτηρίζω (kharaktērízō, “to designate by a characteristic mark”), from χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “a mark, character”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkæɹəktəˈɹɪstɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɛɹəktəˈɹɪstɪk/

• Audio (US, California)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪstɪk
• Hyphenation: char‧ac‧te‧ris‧tic

Adjective[edit]

characteristic (comparative more characteristic, superlative most characteristic)

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

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

Synonyms[edit]

• distinctive
• exclusive
• idiosyncratic
• indicative
• representative
• signature
• specific
• typical

Antonyms[edit]

• uncharacteristic
• untypical

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

characteristic (plural characteristics)

1. A distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
2. (mathematics) The integer part of a logarithm.
   • 1830, Solomon Pearson Miles, Thomas Sherwin, Mathematical Tables: Comprising Logarithms of Numbers, […] , page 69,

     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.

   • 1911, F. T. Swanwick, Elementary Trigonometry, Cambridge University Press, page 60,

     As the sine and cosine are always proper fractions their logarithms are negative, i.e. have negative characteristics. When we are given an angle, it is impossible to say, from inspection of the angle, what the characteristic of the logarithm of its sine, cosine or tangent may be; so the characteristics have to be printed with the mantissae.

   • 1961, Principles and Applications of Mathematics for Communications-Electronics, [U.S.] Department of the Army, page 69,

     Similarly, the characteristic for .003 is −3, and the characteristic for .0003 is −4.

3. (nautical) The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).
4. (algebra, field theory, ring theory) 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.

   • 1962 [John Wiley & Sons], Nathan Jacobson, Lie Algebras, 1979, Dover, page 289,

     In this chapter we study the problem of classifying the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over an arbitrary field of characteristic 0.

   • 1992, Simeon Ivanov (translator), P. M. Gudivok, E. Ya. Pogorilyak, On Modular Representations of Finite Groups over Integral Domains, Simeon Ivanov (editor), Galois Theory, Rings, Algebraic Groups and Their Applications, American Mathematical Society, page 87,

     Let R be a Noetherian factorial ring of characteristic p which is not a field.

   • 1993, S. Warner, Topological Rings, Elsevier (North-Holland), page 424,

     Traditionally, a complete, discretely valued field of characteristic zero, the maximal ideal of whose valuation ring is generated by the prime number p, has been called a p-adic field. In our terminology, the valuation ring of a p-adic field is a Cohen ring of characteristic zero whose residue field has characteristic p, and consequently a p-adic field is simply the quotient field of such a Cohen ring.

Synonyms[edit]

• (distinguishing feature of a person or thing): attribute, hallmark, idiosyncrasy, mannerism, quality, tendency, trademark, trait
• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Coordinate terms[edit]

• (part of a logarithm): mantissa

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

• characteristically

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

• mantissa

Further reading[edit]

• characteristic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “characteristic”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Interlingua[edit]

Adjective[edit]

characteristic (not comparable)

1. characteristic

[edit]

• characteristica

I.noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

distinguishing feature/mark/characteristic

▪ The main distinguishing feature of this species is the leaf shape.

irritating habit/characteristics/mannerisms

▪ She has an irritating habit of interrupting.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

certain

▪ The term social movement refers to a wide range of groups with certain characteristics in common.

▪ As dynamic wholes, these all share certain characteristics: a certain liveliness, for one.

▪ Constitutions there have certain essential characteristics, none of them found in Britain.

▪ Below turning to the Gobitis Case, however, it is desirable to notice certain characteristics by which this controversy is distinguished.

▪ Another way of distinguishing the services provided by local government is to group them according to certain shared characteristics.

▪ Although the Alsops’ fortunes waxed and waned through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain family characteristics remained distinct.

▪ The ten years which followed had certain peculiar characteristics.

▪ These advances always share certain characteristics: 1.

defining

▪ The essential defining characteristic of this relation is its capacity to give rise to pleonasm.

▪ This is a theoretical entity that contains a specification of the word’s defining characteristics.

▪ Nevertheless, the defining characteristic of this period was undoubtedly the Cold War.

▪ Yet the defining characteristic of all patronal social relations is the privileged situation of the patron.

▪ The hard core of a programme is, more than anything else, the defining characteristic of a programme.

▪ The trouble is that one of the defining characteristics of twentysomethings is their cynicism towards advertising.

▪ This was particularly noticeable among the younger policemen, for whom this imagery seems to be a defining characteristic of their work.

▪ Finally, for both Wimsatt and Brooks a defining characteristic of poetry was irony.

demographic

▪ Apart from these demographic characteristics of informal care-giving, in other important respects it remains an issue of central importance to women.

▪ Television programs are aimed at people according to their demographic characteristics rather than their place of residence.

▪ Thus, people with similar socio-economic and demographic characteristics, but living in different places, may well vote for different parties.

▪ Interestingly, there is a striking lack of relationship between Mach scores and demographic characteristics.

▪ Fifty consecutive referrals in 1988 were compared with 50 consecutive referrals in 1990 with respect to demographic characteristics and patterns of drug misuse.

▪ It is particularly applicable where buying can be assessed in the light of the demographic characteristics of shoppers.

▪ It is very unlikely that future generations will exhibit this particular demographic characteristic.

▪ However, the concentration of people with particular demographic characteristics is clearly not just a selective effect.

different

▪ Interestingly, the dementia from this disease has different characteristics than the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

▪ However, Professor Gimbutas suggests that the Goddess displayed different characteristics.

▪ It does have different characteristics from other more fixed medical conditions, such as cerebral palsy.

▪ The twin communities, one on either side of the international river, had now taken on separate and quite different characteristics.

▪ Kikuyu farmers had traditionally farmed several plots which were within easy walking distance but had different characteristics of altitude and soil type.

▪ The different characteristics of the Deity are then shown to reflect one or other of these ways.

▪ Landsats 1-3 and Landsats 4 and 5 have rather different characteristics.

distinctive

▪ There were three distinctive characteristics about the archosaurs that paleontologists discovered marked them off from their antecedents.

▪ During his lifetime, the distinctive characteristics of his vocation had begun to dwindle.

▪ These distinctive characteristics come from differences in minute quantities of flavouring constituents whose concentrations are at the threshold of human sensory perception.

▪ All madeiras are blended and the blender is an artist, giving the blend its distinctive characteristics.

▪ The three islands have distinctive characteristics with the best of the game fishing being on South Uist.

essential

▪ The essential defining characteristic of this relation is its capacity to give rise to pleonasm.

▪ Within the sacred whole, change, subjectivity, and diversity are essential characteristics of the natural world.

▪ To help the learner, complex examples should be reduced to the essential characteristics and differences emphasised.

▪ There are four essential characteristics of the scientific method: 1.

▪ The essential characteristic of Byzantine dome construction is that such a dome is supported upon and covers a square form.

▪ But all these leaders share certain essential characteristics.

▪ Constitutions there have certain essential characteristics, none of them found in Britain.

▪ The essential characteristics of national elections in the United States and Britain are contrasted in Table 5.1.

general

▪ There are some general characteristics, however.

▪ The following chart offers general taste characteristics of the game featured.

▪ Be aware of the distinction between primary evidence and secondary evidence, and the general characteristics of each. 2.

▪ D., was willing to discuss the general characteristics of emotional development.

▪ The general characteristics of each period are discussed.

▪ Results Table I describes the general characteristics of the two groups studied.

human

▪ What he perceived were human characteristics, above all the truth of the heart.

▪ Rawls’s representative agent is portrayed as a disembodied party devoid of any substantive human characteristics except rationality.

▪ This moral valuation of the geometrically simple is a markedly human characteristic.

▪ This lack of genuine relationships with other human beings is characteristic of the unreality of Capitol Hill.

▪ But, beyond hunches and educated guesses, what about other human characteristics such as beliefs, prejudices and emotions?

▪ One can explain many apparently strange human characteristics by pointing to their value for survival at various stages of evolutionary development.

▪ Such people manifestly lack those human characteristics a society both produces in its members and relies on for its continued existence.

important

▪ His intention was to convey the significant or important characteristics of a building.

▪ It was to determine the most important characteristic that accounted for their early success.

▪ This high frequency of participation across a large number of sports is an important characteristic of sports participation.

▪ This last is the most important characteristic of all.

▪ Trade-based classifications Though clearly important, income and population size are not the only important characteristics of countries.

▪ Several of the most important characteristics of preoperational thought are discussed in this chapter.

▪ But perhaps its most important characteristic is one which is only implicit.

▪ Another important characteristic of the sentimental comedy is its moralizing, ethical nature.

individual

▪ Bury, in short, reflected the wealth of an ordinary country district and displayed no strong individual characteristics.

▪ Affiliation may not imply successful recovery. Individual characteristics that have been investigated are as varied as the researchers performing the studies.

▪ Personal Factors Every individual is different; individual characteristics influence behaviour in complex and significant ways.

▪ Select chores that are appropriate to the individual characteristics of the child.

▪ We shall need to study, not just the individual characteristics of leadership, but also the reaction to leadership by others.

▪ My arrangement was good because I got to know the individual characteristics of my helicopter since I flew it day after day.

▪ For a novel writer who may possess individual writing characteristics, unknown to the handwriting recogniser, performance can be low.

▪ Essex displayed strong individual characteristics, not even the forested western fringe being markedly differentiated from the adjacent parts.

key

▪ It was found that key characteristics was by far the most popular strategy, followed by realist strategy.

▪ Otherwise, the partners would be profiled in terms of their key characteristics, financial performance and likely valuation.

▪ The other key characteristic of the even-toed ungulates that would have helped this process along is the structure of the feet.

▪ The key characteristics of each company which make them a good fit with the client should be identified.

▪ A key characteristic of research is that it is public.

▪ This can be illustrated by considering some of the key characteristics of jobbing production.

main

▪ Polar soils and their main characteristics are summarized in Table 3.1, and Figure 3.2 outlines stages in their development.

▪ The main characteristics of capitalism are private ownership of capital and freedom of enterprise.

▪ Moving away from traditional melody, the main characteristic of serialism is the non-repetition of rhythms.

▪ It will be useful therefore to spell out, if only briefly, some of its main characteristics.

▪ However, one of this industry’s main characteristics is that it attracts the maverick.

▪ There were four main characteristics which distinguished the early retired from other older people.

▪ Age does not wither us: it accentuates our main characteristics.

▪ The main characteristics of a period of standstill are: 1.

other

▪ The War Wagon tower has its own toughness value, wounds, and other characteristics as shown below.

▪ Such organizations have many other characteristics which anybody who has worked in them for any length of time will recognize.

▪ Two other characteristics of the sample population require some comment: the incidence of employment, and of domestic help.

▪ The other key characteristic of the even-toed ungulates that would have helped this process along is the structure of the feet.

▪ But, beyond hunches and educated guesses, what about other human characteristics such as beliefs, prejudices and emotions?

▪ If they are not a vocal species, or even if they are, their smell or other characteristics may also be different.

▪ Neither the price nor any other characteristic of the transport system enters into it.

▪ One other characteristic of the 1880 system is also remarkable.

particular

▪ He also pointed to the lack of evidence of consistent female choice for mates carrying particular characteristics.

▪ There could be millions of pools, each of which held mortgages with particular characteristics, each pool in itself homogeneous.

▪ Eysenck’s theory depends on a high correlation between criminality and particular personality characteristics identified by personality tests.

▪ They had to be more specific about the traditionally accepted forms of behaviour, customs, occupations and particular national characteristics.

▪ The particular characteristics chosen above to characterise television and print-on-paper media, are one way of seeing their utilities.

▪ Personality traits are particular characteristics or aspects of this total personality.

▪ These traits are ingrained and stable dispositions to respond to certain situations in particular ways characteristic of the personality.

▪ This was conceptualised both generally and in terms which could take account of particular cultural characteristics.

personal

▪ But personal characteristics are certainly not the whole story.

▪ They are generalizations assumed to be true of an entire group of people, regardless of their personal characteristics and circumstances.

▪ Overall the characteristics of the remuneration scheme were shown to exert more consistent effects than were individuals’ personal characteristics.

▪ Box 5. 1, pages 112-113, details the personal characteristics and background of two extraordinary extremist-activists.

▪ Because the original speaker’s words are stored the personal characteristics remain, even the accent is readily detectable in some cases.

▪ And it is intriguing that their activism followed such divergent paths, despite notable similarities in personal characteristics.

▪ These developments were greatly facilitated and consolidated by the personal characteristics of a series of kings.

▪ Speaking in terms of personal characteristics, for a moment, there must be certainly resources of the spirit and the will.

physical

▪ This states that the defendant must take the plaintiff as he finds him, as regards his physical characteristics.

▪ But the profiles also try to pinpoint physical characteristics, the paper said.

▪ In his work, different cultural groups or social classes appear as separate races with definite and visible physical characteristics.

▪ Unlike the highly sensitive child, the defiant child has some physical characteristics that make a more aggressive approach possible.

▪ Earlier we talked about antimatter — particles which have all their physical characteristics opposite to those displayed by particles of matter.

▪ As I mentioned earlier, not all children who are aggressive display these physical characteristics.

▪ Biochemical Adaptation in Parasites Parasites — from protozoa to helminths — occupy many environments that have markedly different physical and chemical characteristics.

similar

▪ Acrylic fibres are made into fabric which is soft and warm, and consequently has similar characteristics to wool.

▪ These characteristics are similar to the characteristics of Nottinghamshire practices as a whole.

▪ The wealth of Worcester, its size and eminence in the textile industry not withstanding, showed similar characteristics.

▪ A new piece of legislation on this issue, the Disabled Persons Act 1986, seems to have similar characteristics.

▪ In fact, similar managerial characteristics have continued to prevail in larger, technologically-advanced firms.

▪ Many planning systems exist whereby consumers with similar characteristics of purchasing behaviour are grouped.

▪ For those sports possessing a similar collection of characteristics we would expect to have substitute relationships.

social

▪ Are the people different in their social characteristics and if so why?

▪ Readers will find a central concern about the factors that influence social welfare a characteristic of many writings on social policy.

▪ It is also now analysing for the first time in a quantitative way the changing social and cultural characteristics of small towns.

▪ The social characteristics of the two outer-city communities differ quite considerably from those of the inner city.

▪ The 1981 decennial census provides information on the social and economic characteristics of small areas of these cities.

▪ Identity markers are those social characteristics of an individual that they might present to others to support their national identity claim.

▪ Positivist research has generated much data about specific relationships between individual or social characteristics and the likelihood of conviction.

special

▪ Any handicaps or special characteristics which obviously affect health and development can not be ignored.

▪ Together, books and television form a useful alliance which has another set of special characteristics.

▪ The latter may have its own special characteristics for the job you have in mind.

▪ Nothing was said there which relied on any special characteristic of pain.

▪ Even somebody as talented as Cadalora may have trouble adapting to the special steering characteristics of the Honda.

▪ These will highlight the special characteristics and training required by the horse, together with the physical resources needed.

▪ This is one of the special characteristics of catholicism, and is found to a much lesser extent in non-episcopal traditions.

▪ She recognizes her own special rights as an adult, but also the child’s individual interests and special characteristics.

specific

▪ From this emerges the time-#specific characteristic of the photograph.

▪ Detailed information relative to the specific characteristics of the long-term debt is disclosed in the footnotes to the financial statements.

▪ Even when their specific characteristics are recognized, they are given different interpretations and names.

▪ Each member has a specific role and a specific characteristic.

▪ The extent that such voluntary information disclosures can be explained by these specific company characteristics will then be explored.

▪ These two aspects together dictate the specific characteristics of a given model, or paradigm.

▪ Psychology also studies specific characteristics of black subjects.

▪ Ravenna churches have a number of specific characteristics.

unique

▪ The red spots in the caudal peduncle region are one of the unique characteristics of this species.

▪ Medical examiners are interviewing family members about any unique characteristics to help identify bodies.

▪ Each national market will have its unique characteristics.

▪ Thus the unique driving characteristics of a 911 are preserved.

▪ Each has unique characteristics, too.

▪ Because setting varies enormously, since each watercourse possesses its own unique characteristics, pollution is a highly relative notion.

▪ He saw the unique characteristics of adolescent thought and personality as a normal outgrowth of development.

■ NOUN

personality

▪ Eysenck’s theory depends on a high correlation between criminality and particular personality characteristics identified by personality tests.

▪ What personality characteristics do you think are desirable in a political leader?

▪ During the first few years of life, enduring personality characteristics are established.

▪ Psychologists have never had much success at defining which personality characteristics are inherited in humans and which are not.

▪ But in fact lawyers vary all over the lot in their personality characteristics.

▪ Other event-producing situations are unrelated to an individual’s approach to life or personality characteristics.

▪ There are also personality characteristics which are manifested both as strengths and weaknesses.

■ VERB

define

▪ Psychologists have never had much success at defining which personality characteristics are inherited in humans and which are not.

▪ Those who hold that tongue speaking is the defining characteristic of pentecostalism insist on the Topeka advent.

▪ A defining characteristic of the Bund was its acceptance of debate and dissent.

▪ Originality is a defining characteristic of Great Groups.

▪ It is emblematic of the difficulties facing those who attempt definitions in the current age of resistance to overarching defining characteristics.

▪ Optimism and energy, especially in the face of adversity, are defining characteristics of our clan.

▪ The ability to define characteristics such as mass, velocity, inertia and elasticity is also planned.

▪ Solitude for this writer was the defining characteristic.

distinguish

▪ That is its distinguishing characteristic, and something to which we shall return.

▪ But race is not the distinguishing characteristic of this growing rape epidemic.

▪ His mildness and patience were particularly distinguishing characteristics.

exhibit

▪ Such a reaction is both natural and understandable: the Constitution does exhibit those very characteristics.

▪ It is a political project exhibiting all the characteristics of a centrally controlled socialist economic system.

▪ These are learned from others in the group who already exhibit these characteristics.

▪ To appear round and full was to exhibit the characteristics of prosperity and the patent outcome of regular meals.

▪ They do not exhibit the semantic indeterminacy characteristic of poetic metaphors.

▪ Populations that have the greatest potential for achieving benefits and cost-effectiveness in nutrition care exhibit the following characteristics: 1.

▪ Many women workers exhibit labour market characteristics traditionally associated with vulnerability to unemployment.

▪ Marijuana exhibits characteristics of a depressant as well as a stimulant; however, it is classified as neither.

identify

▪ Between them, these statements identify three characteristics at the heart of educational research.

▪ It is possible to identify the characteristics of organizations and institutions where scandals arise.

▪ These groups can be defined only by pilot programmes specifically designed to identify the characteristics of such groups.

▪ Meisel identifies three functional characteristics which-Mosca’s elite has to have — group consciousness. coherence and conspiracy.

▪ This information is then used to profile each area and identify the principal characteristics of the neighbourhood.

▪ So, we have identified two characteristics of winning strategies: niceness and forgivingness.

possess

▪ Sport can possess the characteristic of a capital good, one that yields a return as part of a market production process.

▪ Sentimental comedy possesses several characteristics that are incompatible with the classic concept of tragedy and the tragic hero.

▪ The theory states that individuals possess certain characteristics so that they are predisposed to act in a certain way within a given situation.

▪ For a novel writer who may possess individual writing characteristics, unknown to the handwriting recogniser, performance can be low.

▪ They are buildings of the Romanesque or Gothic periods and possess strong Byzantine characteristics.

▪ What explanatory surveys require are cases which possess characteristics relevant to the problem of the research.

▪ Assets are imperfect substitutes because they possess different characteristics with respect to liquidity, marketability and profitability.

▪ The simplest creatures to possess these physical characteristics are the jellyfish and their relatives.

share

▪ Galton developed a technique for superimposing a number of photographed faces of people with shared characteristics or circumstances.

▪ As dynamic wholes, these all share certain characteristics: a certain liveliness, for one.

▪ To a much lesser degree, retailing may share some such characteristic.

▪ Headaches that share characteristics of both types are called mixed tension-migraine or combined headaches.

▪ She prided herself on her honesty and knew that Helen shared this characteristic.

▪ These advances always share certain characteristics: 1.

▪ This appears to be closely related to whether we share the observed characteristic or not.

▪ But all these leaders share certain essential characteristics.

show

▪ In addition, immediate relatives of diagnosed psychotics show schizotypal characteristics more frequently than would be expected by chance.

▪ The wealth of Worcester, its size and eminence in the textile industry not withstanding, showed similar characteristics.

▪ Conceivably, different forms, changing at different rates and showing contrasting combinations of characteristics, were present in different areas.

▪ This confirms that lesions associated with one particular virus type may show diverse morphological characteristics.

▪ These buildings show characteristics different from later Romanesque work.

▪ The few girls who enter science will not usually show these foreclosure characteristics.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ All great leaders share certain characteristics which must be seen as the key to their success.

▪ Can you describe the robber’s physical characteristics?

▪ Leadership and honesty are the characteristics of a good manager.

▪ One of the characteristics of this species is the dark blue markings on its back.

▪ Ralph can be very mean sometimes. It’s one of his less endearing characteristics.

▪ The main characteristics of capitalism are private ownership of capital and freedom of enterprise.

▪ The two diseases have a number of characteristics in common.

▪ The UK shares many characteristics with other European countries.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪ A chief characteristic of isolationism is not caring very much about what happens elsewhere.

▪ As educators, we are concerned with the characteristics of both learners and their environments.

▪ But in fact lawyers vary all over the lot in their personality characteristics.

▪ In this chapter we have seen that growth is an inherent characteristic of both the Kingdom and the Church.

▪ The most striking characteristic of Morris’s designs is a sensuous vitality derived from his deep love of nature.

▪ The second characteristic of my industrial world is that it is incredibly international.

▪ Their acidic characteristics makes them particularly suitable for the dairy industry, breweries and soft drink manufacturers.

▪ These are also the characteristics of good citizenship, and they should be emphasized in the teaching of all subjects.

II.adjective

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

highly

▪ Basking is highly characteristic of arctic insects.

▪ This highly characteristic Fifties attitude makes Souza’s work look as if it belongs to a time rather than a place.

most

▪ The bright chestnut is considered the most characteristic colour and, all other things being equal, the one to be preferred.

▪ The location and quality of the pain are most characteristic.

▪ The most characteristic feature of addictive disease is that it is a relapsing condition.

▪ When, in his most characteristic gesture, he presses a gesticulating finger to his forehead, his hand trembles.

▪ These spatter cones contain little, if any, fine-grained ashy material and are amongst the most characteristic products of Hawaiian eruptions.

▪ I have focused attention on identification with the society as being the most characteristic attitude thus expressed by citizens.

▪ These small crystals are known as phenocrysts and are one of the most characteristic features of andesites.

▪ One of the most characteristic signals of a cat entering or leaving a social group is the raising of its tail.

so

▪ Within the legal container of marriage, the idealization and illusion so characteristic or the in-love state can take a nasty knock.

▪ This change is so characteristic that its absence should raise a serious question about the diagnosis.

▪ And this is without the inevitable political and legal wrangling so characteristic of any nuclear activity in the United States.

very

▪ The cluster is made up of a small quadrilateral which is distinctive enough, and is very characteristic with × 20.

▪ Mitch Miller always had a very characteristic conducting style, with his hand in the 0.

▪ There is something very characteristic of Mary Leapor in these lines.

▪ This kind of difference in detail is very characteristic of convergent evolution, as we have seen.

▪ The whole cluster is in the same binocular field, even with × 20, and the shape is very characteristic.

▪ But amygdalin reacts with an enzyme in the almond to produce glucose and two very characteristic compounds, benzaldehyde and prussic acid.

■ NOUN

feature

▪ Though these problems are a characteristic feature of modern life, they have been with us for a very long time.

▪ These are the characteristic features of a Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood as seen in a male.

▪ The use of alternative names is a characteristic feature of Near Eastern writing.

▪ These small crystals are known as phenocrysts and are one of the most characteristic features of andesites.

▪ The characteristic feature of Brindley’s canals was their winding routes, following contours as far as possible without involving major earthworks.

▪ One of the characteristic features of their communities is the street-based group activity.

▪ Consider two of the characteristic features of the first sub-stage of the period Piaget calls the period of concrete operations.

▪ This social mobility is a characteristic feature, and has two implications.

form

▪ Yet they did have an important influence on the evolution of bargaining structure and the characteristic form which it assumed.

pattern

▪ The result is a characteristic pattern of light and dark fringes.

▪ In essential schizophrenia the characteristic pattern is of withdrawal from the impacts of experience in the outside world.

▪ M39 is very loose, but sufficiently condensed to make it obvious, particularly in view of the characteristic pattern of its leading stars.

style

▪ Whatever the colour scheme, there are certain characteristic styles.

▪ The characteristic styles of great architects and designers may be seen clearly reflected — Chippendale, Sheraton, Adam and Hepplewhite.

way

▪ It shatters satisfyingly when hammered, and it does so in a characteristic way.

▪ They were all running, each in its own characteristic way, like a gathering of old friends in animated conversation.

▪ A few characteristic ways of changing minds may be examined.

▪ The evangelists make the point in their own characteristic ways.

▪ It is helpful to think of a leader more as a role with characteristic ways of behaving than as a particular person.

▪ Each has already developed its own characteristic way of exploiting that major insect invention, flight.

▪ The mammals have their own special and characteristic way of fuelling their developing young.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ Each species of bird has its own characteristic song.

▪ Larry, with characteristic generosity, invited everyone back to his house.

▪ Naomi is meeting the changes in her life with characteristic optimism.

▪ This pattern is characteristic of the local architecture.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪ A few characteristic ways of changing minds may be examined.

▪ Component subskills in reading and spelling A characteristic feature of any skill is a hierarchical organisation of component subskills.

▪ Contrasts of major and minor keys with the same root, found but once in Stuck’s first book, are characteristic.

▪ Dress not only covers and decorates the body but instils in the wearer its own characteristic strengths and weaknesses.

▪ In the advanced case, the upper limb is carried in a characteristic posture of flexion, adduction, and pronation.

▪ The choices are unlimited, but here are some of the characteristic elements which help to give a kitchen a particular atmosphere.

▪ What is characteristic of his interpretation is that he did not attribute any importance to the Maccabean movement.

Characteristics Definition

We can define characteristics as qualities or features that describe the distinctive nature or features of an individual organism or of a group. Characteristics may aid in identifying a particular group that shares common distinctive features or they may help set an individual or a group apart from the others. The common synonyms for characteristics are attributes, qualities, features, and traits. However, “trait” is more general than “characteristic”. Traits include all attributes whereas characteristics are traits that “characterize“, meaning “identify” and may therefore be used to “categorize”.

Characteristics may be physical, chemical, or biological. What is a physical characteristic? A physical characteristic is a property that depicts and helps distinguish the physical nature of an entity from the others. Specific heights and weights are examples of physical characteristics. A chemical characteristic is a property of a chemical substance that helps identify it. Thus, it can be about the specific toxicity, flammability, the heat of combustion, oxidation states, chemical stability, reactivity with other chemicals, coordination number, and enthalpy of formation of a chemical substance that sets it apart from the other chemicals. Look at the figure below to help differentiate between physical and chemical properties that when specified may help characterize a chemical entity.

How about in biology? What is a characteristic? What does it mean? In biology, characteristics mean the distinctive biological traits or features of the organism. As pointed out above, traits and characteristics may be used synonymously but there are subtle differences in usage, including in biology. In particular, a biological trait (sometimes referred to as character) refers to a particular biological attribute. For example, eye color is a biological trait and having a blue eye color is a biological characteristic.

Biological traits may be inherited or acquired.  Inherited character is a trait or feature that is transferred from parents to their offspring through genes. Acquired character is a trait or character that an organism gains from the response to the environment. A character may be controlled by a single gene or by multiple genes. If few genes control characteristic traits, they are termed qualitative or oligogenic characters. Oligogenic characters show discontinuous variation. In this, the traits are discrete. Blood group type is an example of oligogenic characters. The blood group is of four types: AB, A, B, or O.  If multiple genes control a character or trait, it is termed quantitative or polygenic characters. Such characters are in continuous variation.

Biology definition:
A characteristic is a distinguishing quality, trait, or feature of an individual, thing, disorder, etc. It is often a distinctive mark, feature, attribute, or property of an individual or thing. For example, a living thing has the following characteristics: made up of cell(s), capable of reproduction, growth, and development, obtains energy and utilizes it, responds, and adapts to its environment. Etymology: from Greek “charaktēristikós”, meaning “to designate” or “to characterize”. See also: trait. Synonyms: attribute; feature; trait.

Characteristic Examples

There are many general characteristics and functions of a living organism that define life. They are order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, energy processing, adaptation through evolution, and metabolism. These characteristics set living things apart from non-living things.

• • Order: An individual or organism is made up of a cell or a group of cells. The cells are arranged in a highly organized and coordinated way. Some organisms are single-celled (made up of only one cell) or multicellular, which characteristically refers to having multiple cells. In multicellular organisms, similar cells combine and form tissues. The tissue will lead to the formation of different body organs. Organs work together and form an organ system. Multiple organ systems work in coordination and form an individual.

• • • Sensitivity or Response to Stimuli: an organism’s characteristic is that it is capable of responding to a stimulus. For example, bacteria show phototaxis behavior. The tendency of an organism to move towards or away from light is called phototaxis. And so for instance, based on their response to light, bacteria may then be categorized as photophilic (thriving in light, and so they move toward the light source) or photophobic (sensitive to light, thus they move away from the light source).
    • Reproduction: reproduction is the characteristic of organisms to produce offspring similar to their parents. Many single-celled organisms reproduce by the duplication of their DNA and then the cell divides to form two new cells. This is binary fission, which is an example of an asexual mode of reproduction. In multicellular organisms, special cells called gametes are produced for use in a sexual mode of reproduction.

  

  • Growth and Development: different organisms grow differently according to the instructions encoded in their genes. These genes provide the information about growth and development of the organism. The genes that they inherit from their parents account for the fundamental and common characteristics that they may share with their parents.

• Regulation and homeostasis: even unicellular organisms are complex. They need multiple regulation mechanisms to maintain the body’s functions in a coordinated and well-organized way. Organisms either unicellular or multicellular need to maintain internal body functions, respond to the stimuli, and cope with the fluctuation of the external environment. Blood flow and transportation of nutrients are two examples of internal function regulation. Organs are performing their specific function like carrying oxygen throughout the body, removing waste materials, transporting nutrients to every cell of the body, and keeping the body temperature at optimum level.
  • • Let’s take for example bacteria. Not all bacteria can survive high temperatures but thermophiles. Thermophiles are characterized by their ability to withstand temperatures between 41 and 122 °C, which would otherwise kill most bacteria.
  • • Another example is thermoregulation among animals. Some animals are cut out for a cold environment. In fact, polar bears are capable of living in cold polar regions that the other types of bears would find challenging.  Polar bears can maximally conserve their body heat by having these characteristics: a greasy coat that helps reduce heat loss, black skin under the unpigmented fur that absorbs the heat of the sun (UV light), and a thick layer of blubber (4 inches) that acts as an insulator (prevents heat from letting out). On the other hand, animals that live in hot environments have other methods to dissipate body heat. For example, dogs sweat through their paws and pant to cool themselves.

  

• Energy Processing: to maintain life and metabolic activities, all organisms need energy.
  • Autotrophs are characterized by having the ability to make their own food. This characteristic sets them apart from heterotrophs. Photoautotrophs, in particular, make their own food through photosynthesis. Examples are plants. They capture the energy from the sun and convert it into chemical energy (food).
  • Heterotrophs take that chemical energy from autotrophs in the form of their food and use it for their survival. Examples of heterotrophs are animals.
• Adaptation through Evolution: adaptation is the unique characteristic by which organisms adapt so that they can survive according to the environment. Although adaptation is a slow process but to face the environmental challenges in a better way, various behavioral and physical features of an organism change. Organisms go through the process of natural selection. The one who adopts good characteristics will survive better. (Hershey, 2018)
  • For example, earlier snakes had legs similar to lizards. They lost their legs so that they can easily go in small holes. Without legs, they can easily fit even in tighter spaces. This adaptation helps them to hide from predators.

    

• Metabolism: Metabolism is a set of different chemical reactions which occur in a living organism for maintaining life. The different functions of metabolism are as follows: conversion of food energy into cellular energy, conversion of food into the building blocks (nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins), and elimination of waste and toxic material from the body. Metabolic reactions are of two categories. They are catabolic reactions (breaking of compounds) and anabolic reactions (synthesis of compounds).

Try to answer the quiz below to check what you have learned so far about characteristics.

Further Reading

• Physical characteristics of Sharks
• Characteristics of New Zealand’s Native Flora

References

• Britannica, T. E. o. E. (2021). character. Retrieved 07 Nov, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/science/character-biology
• Hershey, A. (2018). Examples of Evolutionary Adaptation. Retrieved 07 Nov, 2021, from https://sciencing.com/examples-evolutionary-adaptation-6131133.html
• Lumen Learning. (2021). The Characteristics of Life. Retrieved 07 Nov, 2021, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-wmopen-biology1/chapter/the-characteristics-of-life/

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A characteristic is a distinguishing feature of a person or thing. It may refer to:

Computing[edit]

• Characteristic (biased exponent), an ambiguous term formerly used by some authors to specify some type of exponent of a floating point number
• Characteristic (significand), an ambiguous term formerly used by some authors to specify the significand of a floating point number

Science[edit]

• I–V or current–voltage characteristic, the current in a circuit as a function of the applied voltage
• Receiver operating characteristic

Mathematics[edit]

• Characteristic (algebra) of a ring, the smallest common cycle length of the ring’s addition operation
• Characteristic (logarithm), integer part of a common logarithm
• Characteristic function, usually the indicator function of a subset, though the term has other meanings in specific domains
• Characteristic polynomial, a polynomial associated with a square matrix in linear algebra
• Characteristic subgroup, a subgroup that is invariant under all automorphisms in group theory
• Characteristic value, another name for the eigenvalue of a matrix
• Characteristic vector (disambiguation), another name for eigenvector of a matrix
• Characteristic word, a subclass of Sturmian word
• Euler characteristic, a topological invariant
• Method of characteristics, a technique for solving partial differential equations

Other uses[edit]

• Light characteristic, pattern of a lighted beacon
• Another name for ability score in Dungeons & Dragons

See also[edit]

• All pages with titles containing Characteristic
• Characteristicks, a 1711 philosophical treatise by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury