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What is the difference between distinguish and characteristic?

distinguish | characteristic |

As a verb distinguish

is to see someone or something as different from others.

As a 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.

distinguish

English

Verb

  • To see someone or something as different from others.
  • * {{quote-book, author=De Lacy O'Leary, title=, year=1922
  • , passage=It had begun to take a leading place even in the days of the Ptolemies, and in scientific, as distinguished from purely literary work, it had assumed a position of primary importance early in the Christian era.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jeremy Bernstein) , title=A Palette of Particles , volume=100, issue=2, page=146 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}
  • To see someone or something clearly or distinctly.
  • To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.
  • * 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
  • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
  • (obsolete) To make to differ.
  • * Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 7 (Douay version)
  • Who distinguisheth thee?

    Usage notes

    In sense “see a difference”, more casual than differentiate or the formal discriminate; more casual is “tell the difference”.

    Synonyms

    (see a difference) differentiate, discriminate

    Derived terms

    * distinguished * distinguishable * distinguishness

    Antonyms

    * (to see someone or something as different from others) confuse

    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