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Characteristic vs Virtue - What's the difference?

characteristic | virtue | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between characteristic and virtue

is that characteristic is a distinguishable feature of a person or thing while virtue is the inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being.

As an adjective characteristic

is being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

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

    virtue

    English

    (wikipedia virtue)

    Alternative forms

    * vertue (archaic)

    Noun

  • (obsolete) The inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being.
  • The inherent power or efficacy of something (now only in phrases).
  • * 2011 , "The autumn of the patriarchs", The Economist , 17 Feb 2011:
  • many Egyptians still worry that the Brotherhood, by virtue of discipline and experience, would hold an unfair advantage if elections were held too soon.
  • (uncountable) Accordance with moral principles; conformity of behaviour or thought with the strictures of morality; good moral conduct.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , XV.1:
  • There are a set of religious, or rather moral, writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world.
  • A particular manifestation of moral excellence in a person; an admirable quality.
  • * 1766 , Laurence Sterne, Sermon XLIV:
  • Some men are modest, and seem to take pains to hide their virtues ; and, from a natural distance and reserve in their tempers, scarce suffer their good qualities to be known [...].
  • Specifically, each of several qualities held to be particularly important, including the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues, or the seven virtues opposed to the seven deadly sins.
  • * 1813 , John Fleetwood, The Life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ :
  • The divine virtues of truth and equity are the only bands of friendship, the only supports of society.
  • An inherently advantageous or excellent quality of something or someone; a favourable point, an advantage.
  • * 1719 , :
  • There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out.
  • * 2011 , The Guardian , Letter, 14 Mar 2011
  • One virtue of the present coalition government's attack on access to education could be to reopen the questions raised so pertinently by Robinson in the 1960s [...].
  • A creature embodying divine power, specifically one of the orders of heavenly beings, traditionally ranked above angels and below archangels.
  • * 1667 , John Milton, Paradise Lost , Book X:
  • Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues , Powers; / For in possession such, not only of right, / I call ye, and declare ye now [...].
  • (uncountable) Specifically, moral conduct in sexual behaviour, especially of women; chastity.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice :
  • though she did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage, she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey.

    Synonyms

    *

    Antonyms

    * (excellence in morals) vice * foible

    Derived terms

    * virtuous * make a virtue of necessity * patience is a virtue * in virtue of, by virtue of

    See also

    * aretaic * paragon