Characterize vs Characteristic - What's the difference?
characterize | characteristic |
to depict someone or something a particular way (often negative)
to determine the characteristics of
* {{quote-book, passage=This glossary includes terminology used in coastal science, engineering, geology, management, nearshore oceanography and the technologies that characterize , measure, describe or quantify the physical properties, processes and changes of the coastal zone.
, title=Department of Ecology Publication No. 98-105
, chapter=Glossary of Coastal Terminology
, author=Brian Voigt
, year=1998
Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
* , chapter=12
, title= a distinguishable feature of a person or thing
(mathematics) the integer part of a logarithm
(nautical) the distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc)
(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.
As a verb characterize
is to depict someone or something a particular way (often negative).As an adjective characteristic is
being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.As a noun characteristic is
a distinguishable feature of a person or thing.characterize
English
(Characterization)Alternative forms
* characteriseVerb
(characteriz)citation
Derived terms
* characterizationExternal links
* *characteristic
English
(wikipedia characteristic)Adjective
(en adjective)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=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
* distinctive * exclusive * idiosyncratic * indicative * representative * signature * specific * typicalAntonyms
* uncharacteristic * untypicalDerived terms
* characteristic function * characteristicnessNoun
(en noun)- A field's characteristic, if non-zero, must be a prime number.