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What is the difference between typical and characteristic?

typical | characteristic | Synonyms |

Characteristic is a synonym of typical.



As adjectives the difference between typical and characteristic

is that typical is capturing the overall sense of a thing while characteristic is being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

As nouns the difference between typical and characteristic

is that typical is anything that is typical, normal, or standard while characteristic is a distinguishable feature of a person or thing.

typical

English

Alternative forms

* typicall (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Capturing the overall sense of a thing.
  • Characteristically representing something by form, group, idea or type.
  • Normal, average; to be expected.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=
  • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=2 citation , passage=One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * atypical

    Derived terms

    * typicality * typically * typicalness

    See also

    * gestalt * gist * resemblance * emblematic * prefigurative * distinctive

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything that is typical, normal, or standard.
  • Antipsychotic drugs can be divided into typicals and atypicals.
    Among the moths, typicals were more common than melanics.

    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