characteristic
Syllables: char·ac·te·ris·ticUK/ˌkæɹəktəˈɹɪstɪk//ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/
characteristic adjective: indicating a distinguishing feature of a person or thing; typical.
Adjective
characteristic (comparative more characteristic, superlative most characteristic)
- Indicating a distinguishing feature of a person or thing; typical.
- Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Describing or pertaining to personal characters or character types; characterful.
- “Great men have their surprising peculiarities,” I observed inanely. “[…] How did the great feminist wind up this very characteristic episode?”1911, Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, Penguin Classics, published 2007, page 138
Noun
characteristic (plural characteristics)
- A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior.
- 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.1830, Solomon Pearson Miles, Thomas Sherwin, Mathematical Tables: Comprising Logarithms of Numbers, […] , page 69
- 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...1911, F. T. Swanwick, Elementary Trigonometry, Cambridge University Press, page 60
- The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).
- 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.
characteristic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
characteristic in Hindi
- characteristic, quality, attribute, trait; description
- सिफ़त sifat
- characteristic, property
- गुण guṇ
- characteristic
- लक्षण lakṣaṇ
- characteristic, typical
- स्वाभाविक svābhāvik
characteristic in Tamil
- சிறப்பியல்பு, குணவியல்பு, குண இயல்பு, குணாதிசயம், தன்மை, இயல்பாய்வு
characteristic in Urdu
- characteristic, property
- گن gun
characteristic in Bengali
- distinguishing feature
- বৈশিষ্ট্য bōiśiśṭṭo
More languagesFewer languages
- characteristic in Malayalam
- സ്വഭാവം, സ്വഭാവവിശേഷം, അഭിലക്ഷണം, ലാക്ഷണികം
- characteristic in Kannada
- ವಿಶೇಷಗುಣ, ಅಪೂರ್ವಲಕ್ಷಣ, ವೈಶಿಷ್ಟ್ಯ, ಗುರುತು
- characteristic in Punjabi
- ਲੱਖਣ lakkhaṇ
- characteristic in Sanskrit
- वैशेषिक vaiśeṣika
- characteristic in Tagalog
- katangian, buumbahagi
- characteristic in Arabic
- صِفَة ṣifa
- characteristic in Indonesian
- karakteristik, karekteristik
- characteristic in Thai
- คุณลักษณะ kun-ná-lák-sà-nà, ลักษณะ lák-sà-nà
- characteristic in Vietnamese
- đặc điểm
Examples of characteristic in a sentence
- As the sine and cosine are always proper fractions their logarithms are negative, i.e. have negative characteristics.1911, F. T. Swanwick, Elementary Trigonometry, Cambridge University Press, page 60:
- Similarly, the characteristic for .003 is −3, and the characteristic for .0003 is −4.1961, “Principles and Applications of Mathematics for Communications-Electronics”, in U.S, Department of the Army, page 69:
- 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.1993, S. Warner, Topological Rings, Elsevier (North-Holland), page 424:
Synonyms of characteristic
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of characteristic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more characteristic |
| superlative | most characteristic |
| Noun | |
| plural | characteristics |
Origin of characteristic
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.
Words formed from characteristic
- bicharacteristic
- characteristic function
- characteristicness
- characteristic polynomial
- characteristic root
- characteristic time
- characteristic value
- characteristic vector
- equicharacteristic
- noncharacteristic
- acquired characteristic
- biocharacteristic
- defining characteristic
- demand characteristic
- derived characteristic
- Euler characteristic
- light characteristic
- secondary sex characteristic
- semicharacteristic
- sex characteristic
- subcharacteristic
Phrases with characteristic
Words that rhyme with characteristic
- artistic
- autistic
- atavistic
- ballistic
- heuristic
- linguistic
- pessimistic
- realistic
- cystic
- futuristic
- histic
- holistic
29 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- hypocoristic
- mystic
- optimistic
- activistic
- allistic
- altruistic
- cannibalistic
- criminalistic
- economistic
- epiphenomenalistic
- fistic
- heteroantagonistic
- hubristic
- hybristic
- infinitistic
- isoantagonistic
- jingoistic
- journalistic
- librettistic
- malistic
- mistic
- navalistic
- paralinguistic
- pistic
- retrofuturistic
- spiritistic
- supercalifragilistic
- surrealistic
- unartistic
Questions about characteristic
- What does characteristic mean?
- Characteristic means indicating a distinguishing feature of a person or thing; typical.
- What is characteristic in Hindi?
- Characteristic in Hindi is सिफ़त (sifat), गुण (guṇ), लक्षण (lakṣaṇ). See Characteristic meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use characteristic in a sentence?
- As the sine and cosine are always proper fractions their logarithms are negative, i.e. have negative characteristics.
- What part of speech is characteristic?
- Characteristic can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce characteristic?
- Characteristic is pronounced /ˌkæɹəktəˈɹɪstɪk/ (UK).
Words near characteristic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: characteristic (page history and authors); गुण (Hindi) (page history and authors); characteristic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); گن (Urdu) (page history and authors); characteristic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); characteristic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਲੱਖਣ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); वैशेषिक (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “characteristic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/characteristic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.