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characteristic meaning

EN[ˌkʰæɹəktəˈɹɪstɪk]
US
WCharacteristic
  • Characteristic (from the Greek word for a property, attribute or trait of an entity) may refer to:
  • In physics and engineering, any characteristic curve that shows the relationship between certain input and output parameters, for example:
  • I-V or current-voltage characteristic, the current in a circuit as a function of the applied voltage
  • Receiver operating characteristic
  • In navigation:
  • Light characteristic, pattern of a lighted beacon
  • In mathematics:
  • Characteristic (algebra) of a ring, the smallest common cycle length of the ring's addition operation

    Definition of characteristic in English Dictionary

  • NounPLcharacteristicsSUF-istic
    1. a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
      1. (mathematics) the integer part of a logarithm.
        1. (nautical) the distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc).
          1. (algebra, field theory) The minimum number of times that the unit of a field must be added unto itself in order to yield that field's zero, or, if that minimum natural number does not exist, then (the integer) zero.
            1. A field's characteristic, if non-zero, must be a prime number.
        2. AdjectiveCOMmore characteristicSUPmost characteristic
          1. Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
            1. 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.
        3. More Examples
          1. Used in the Middle of Sentence
            • The solutions are obtained by expressing the metric function in terms of an auxiliary function which satisfies the Laplace equation, a characteristic property of the conformastatic spacetimes.
            • Humphries broke out more freely into speech than he had done before, for his usual characteristic was that of taciturnity.
            • Ellis-van Creveld (EvC) syndrome or chondroectodermal dysplasia is an autosomal recessive disorder with characteristic clinical manifestations.
          2. Used in the Ending of Sentence
            • DME was defined as the presence of any retinal thickening or hard exsudates at the posterior pole irrespective of center involvement or ischemic characteristics.
            • As the chest wall and lungs hyperinflate, they progressively resist further inflation by virtue of their elastic recoil characteristics.
        • Part-of-Speech Hierarchy
          1. Adjectives
            • Nouns
              • Countable nouns
            Related Links:
            1. en characteristics
            2. en characteristically
            3. en characteristick
            4. en characteristical
            5. en characteristicness
            Source: Wiktionary
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            Meaning of characteristic for the defined word.

            Grammatically, this word "characteristic" is an adjective. It's also a noun, more specifically, a countable noun.
            Difficultness: Level 1
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            Definiteness: Level 8
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            Definite    ➨     Versatile
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