Detail vs Characteristic - What's the difference?
detail | characteristic |
(countable) Something small enough to escape casual notice.
(uncountable) A profusion of details.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)
, volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Something considered trivial enough to ignore.
(countable) A person's name, address and other personal information.
(military) A temporary unit or assignment.
A part distinct from the whole.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
to explain in detail
* 2014 , Ian Black, "
(US (?)) to clean carefully (particularly a car) ()
(military) to assign to a particular task
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 detail and characteristic
is that detail is detail 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.detail
English
Noun
Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli, passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail , a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.}}
Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution, passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
Synonyms
* (something considered trivial enough to ignore) technicality, trifle, triviality * (personal information) particulars * contingent, detachmentDerived terms
* in detail * detail-orientedSee also
* overview * bird's-eye view * big pictureVerb
(en verb)- I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
- It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world.
- We need to have the minivan detailed .
Derived terms
* detailingSynonyms
* (to explain in detail) specify * detachAnagrams
* * English heteronyms ----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.