Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Characteristic

Char′ac·ter·is′tic (kăr′ăk·tẽr·ĭs′tĭk), a. [Gr. χαρακτηριστικός: cf. F. charactéristique.] Pertaining to, or serving to constitute, the character; showing the character, or distinctive qualities or traits, of a person or thing; peculiar; distinctive.

Characteristic clearness of temper. Macaulay.

Char′ac·ter·is′tic, n. 1. A distinguishing trait, quality, or property; an element of character; that which characterized. Pope.

The characteristics of a true critic. Johnson.

2. (Math.) The integral part (whether positive or negative) of a logarithm.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.