What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

What is the difference between field and characteristic?

field | characteristic |

As nouns the difference between field and characteristic

is that field is (land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country)A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country while characteristic is a distinguishable feature of a person or thing.

As a verb field

is to intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.

As a proper noun Field

is {{surname}.

As an adjective characteristic is

being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

field

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country.
  • A wide, open space that is usually used to grow crops or to hold farm animals.
  • * (Lord Byron) (1788-1824)
  • fields which promise corn and wine
  • *{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny
  • , chapter=5, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=Anstruther laughed good-naturedly. “[…] I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields .”}}
  • The open country near or belonging to a town or city—usually used in plural.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields , in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.}}
  • A physical phenomenon, such as force, potential, or fluid velocity, that pervades a region.
  • (senseid)A course of study or domain of knowledge or practice.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-10, author=Audrey Garric
  • , volume=188, issue=22, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Urban canopies let nature bloom , passage=As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field .}}
  • An area that can be seen at a given time.
  • (senseid)A place where a battle is fought; a battlefield.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • this glorious and well-foughten field
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • What though the field be lost?
  • An area reserved for playing a game.
  • A realm of practical, direct, or natural operation, contrasting with an office, classroom, or laboratory.
  • (senseid)(label) A commutative ring with identity for which every non element has a multiplicative inverse.
  • (label) A region containing a particular mineral.
  • (label) The background of the shield.
  • (label) An area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value.
  • A component of a database record in which a single unit of information is stored.
  • A physical or virtual location for the input of information in the form of characters.
  • The team in a match that throws the ball and tries to catch it when it is hit by the other team (the bat).
  • (label) The outfield.
  • An unrestricted or favourable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement.
  • * (1800-1859)
  • afforded a clear field for moral experiments
  • All of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting.
  • Synonyms

    * (course of study or domain of knowledge) area, domain, sphere, realm * (area reserved for playing a game) course (for golf), court (for racquet sports), ground, pitch

    Hypernyms

    * (algebra) Euclidean domain ⊂ principal ideal domain ⊂ unique factorization domain, Noetherian domain ⊂ integral domain ⊂ commutative ring

    Hyponyms

    * (algebra) ordered field, Pythagorean field

    Derived terms

    * center field * fieldwork * field marshal * field theory * finite field * field seam * infield * left field * number field * outfield * play the field * quadratic field * right field * scalar field * semantic field * splitting field * vector field

    Usage notes

    In the mathematical sense, some languages, such as French, use a term that literally means "body". This denotes a division ring or skew field, not necessarily commutative. If it is clear from context that the quaternions and similar division rings are irrelevant, or that all division rings being considered are finite and therefore fields, this difference is ignored.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (sports) To intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.
  • (baseball, softball, cricket, and other batting sports) To be the team catching and throwing the ball, as opposed to hitting it.
  • The blue team are fielding first, while the reds are batting.
  • (sports) To place a team in (a game).
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=August 23 , author=Alasdair Lamont , title=Hearts 0-1 Liverpool , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=On balance, it was harsh on Hearts, who had given as good as they got against their more-fancied opponents, who, despite not being at full strength, fielded a multi-million pound team.}}
    The away team field ed two new players and the second-choice goalkeeper.
  • To answer; to address.
  • She will field questions immediately after her presentation.
  • To defeat.
  • Synonyms

    * * * address, answer, deal with, respond to

    Antonyms

    * (be the team throwing and catching the ball) bat

    See also

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * * *

    References

    * [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=field&searchmode=none] - Etymology of "field"

    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