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Characteristic vs Condition - What's the difference?

characteristic | condition |

As nouns the difference between characteristic and condition

is that characteristic is a distinguishable feature of a person or thing while condition is a logical clause or phrase that a conditional statement uses. The phrase can either be true or false.

As an adjective characteristic

is being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

As a verb condition is

to subject to the process of acclimation.

characteristic

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= 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 * typical

    Antonyms

    * uncharacteristic * untypical

    Derived terms

    * characteristic function * characteristicness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • A field's characteristic, if non-zero, must be a prime number.

    Synonyms

    * attribute * idiosyncrasy * mannerism * quality * tendency * trademark * trait * See also

    Derived terms

    * defining characteristic

    See also

    * mantissa

    condition

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A logical clause or phrase that a conditional statement uses. The phrase can either be true or false.
  • A requirement, term or requisite.
  • (legal) A clause in a contract or agreement indicating that a certain contingency may modify the principal obligation in some way.
  • The health status of a medical patient.
  • The state or quality.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.}}
  • A particular state of being.
  • (obsolete) The situation of a person or persons, particularly their social and/or economic class, rank.
  • A man of his condition has no place to make request.

    Synonyms

    * (the health or state of something) fettle

    Derived terms

    * conditional * condition subsequent * human condition * in condition * interesting condition * mint condition * necessary condition * precondition * statement of condition * sufficient condition

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To subject to the process of acclimation.
  • I became conditioned to the absence of seasons in San Diego.
  • To subject to different conditions, especially as an exercise.
  • They were conditioning their shins in their karate class.
  • To place conditions or limitations upon.
  • * Tennyson
  • Seas, that daily gain upon the shore, / Have ebb and flow conditioning their march.
  • To shape the behaviour of someone to do something.
  • To treat (the hair) with hair conditioner.
  • To contract; to stipulate; to agree.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • Pay me back my credit, / And I'll condition with ye.
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
  • It was conditioned between Saturn and Titan, that Saturn should put to death all his male children.
  • To test or assay, as silk (to ascertain the proportion of moisture it contains).
  • (McElrath)
  • (US, colleges, transitive) To put under conditions; to require to pass a new examination or to make up a specified study, as a condition of remaining in one's class or in college.
  • to condition a student who has failed in some branch of study
  • To impose upon an object those relations or conditions without which knowledge and thought are alleged to be impossible.
  • * Sir W. Hamilton
  • To think of a thing is to condition .

    Derived terms

    * air-condition * conditioner * precondition * recondition

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----