Shape vs Characteristic - What's the difference?
shape | characteristic |
The status or condition of something
Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.
The appearance of something, especially its outline.
A figure with unspecified appearance; especially a geometric figure.
Form; formation.
* 2006 , Berdj Kenadjian, Martin Zakarian, From Darkness to Light :
(iron manufacture) A rolled or hammered piece, such as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.
(iron manufacture) A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.
A mould for making jelly, blancmange etc., or a piece of such food formed moulded into a particular shape.
*1918 , (Rebecca West), The Return of the Soldier , Virago 2014, p. 74:
*:‘And if I'm late for supper there's a dish of macaroni cheese you must put in the oven and a tin of tomatoes to eat with it. And there's a little rhubarb and shape .’
To give something a shape and definition.
* 1932 , The American Scholar , page 227, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.
* Prior
* {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Mark Vesty, work=BBC
, title= (of a country, person, etc) To give influence to.
To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.
(obsolete) To imagine; to conceive.
* Shakespeare
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 shape and characteristic
is that shape is the status or condition of something while characteristic is a distinguishable feature of a person or thing.As a verb shape
is to give something a shape and definition.As an adjective characteristic is
being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.shape
English
Noun
(en noun)- The used bookshop wouldn't offer much due to the poor shape of the book.
- The vet checked to see what kind of shape the animal was in.
- We exercise to keep in good physical shape .
- He cut a square shape out of the cake.
- What shape shall we use for the cookies? Stars, circles, or diamonds?
- What if God's plans and actions do mold the shape of human events?
Hyponyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* contest shape * * in no shape to * * in shape * out of shape * shapeless * shapely * shapesmith * shape-shifter * shape-shifting * shipshape * take shape * the shape of things to come * whip into shapeSee also
*Verb
- The professor never pretended to the academic prerogative of forcing his students into his own channels of reasoning; he entered into and helped shape the discussion but above all he made his men learn to think for themselves and rely upon their own intellectual judgments.
Revenge of the nerds, passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
- Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face.
Wigan 2-2 Arsenal, passage=Bendtner's goal-bound shot was well saved by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi but fell to Arsahvin on the edge of the area and the Russian swivelled, shaped his body and angled a sumptuous volley into the corner. }}
- (Shakespeare)
- Oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not.
Synonyms
* (give shape) form, moldDerived terms
* beshape * foreshape * forshape * misshape * overshape * shape upAnagrams
* * * 1000 English basic wordscharacteristic
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.
