Criterion vs Characteristic - What's the difference?
criterion | characteristic |
A standard or test by which individual things or people may be compared and judged.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-11-30, volume=409, issue=8864, magazine=(The Economist), author=Paul Davis
, title= 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 nouns the difference between criterion and characteristic
is that criterion is a standard or test by which individual things or people may be compared and judged while characteristic is a distinguishable feature of a person or thing.As an adjective characteristic is
being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.criterion
English
Alternative forms
* (nonstandard) * criteriumNoun
(criteria)Letters: Say it as simply as possible, passage=Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion ” in a chart (“
On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?}}
Usage notes
* The plural form criterions also exists, but is much less common. * The form criteria is sometimes used as a nonstandard singular form (as in a criteria'', ''this criteria , and so on), with corresponding plural form criterias. In this use, it sometimes means “a single criterion”, sometimes “a set of criteria”.External links
* *Anagrams
* English nouns with irregular plurals ----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.