Characteristic

Quick meaning: Characteristic is an adjective meaning Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

Meaning

Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

More Meanings

1. A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior.
2. (mathematics) The integer part of a logarithm.
3. (nautical) The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).
4. (algebra, field theory, ring theory) For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together yield the additive identity (0) or, if no such number exists, the number 0.

Example Sentences

The characteristic of a field, if non-zero, must be a prime number.

Similarly, the characteristic for .003 is −3, and the characteristic for .0003 is −4.

1962 [John Wiley & Sons], Nathan Jacobson, Lie Algebras, 1979, Dover, page 289, In this chapter we study the problem of classifying the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over an arbitrary field of characteristic 0.

It is evident, moreover, that as the logarithms of numbers, which are tenfold, the one of the other, do not differ except in their characteristics, it is sufficient that the tables contain the fractional parts only of the logarithms.

Word Forms

• characteristics

Synonyms for characteristic

Depending on context, synonyms include distinctive, exclusive, idiosyncratic, indicative, representative, signature.

Antonyms for characteristic

Common opposites include uncharacteristic, untypical.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include identifying, typical, distinctive, feature, distinguishing, peculiar.

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