adjective
- Also char·ac·ter·is·ti·cal. pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive: Red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn.
noun
- a distinguishing feature or quality: Generosity is his chief characteristic.
- Mathematics.
- the integral part of a common logarithm.Compare mantissa.
- the exponent of 10 in a number expressed in scientific notation.
- the smallest positive integer n such that each element of a given ring added to itself n times results in 0.
adjective
- not typical or usual
noun
- a distinguishing quality, attribute, or trait
- maths
- the integral part of a common logarithm, indicating the order of magnitude of the associated numberthe characteristic of 2.4771 is 2 Compare mantissa
- another name for exponent, used esp in number representation in computing
adjective
- indicative of a distinctive quality, etc; typical
adj.1753, from un- (1) “not” + characteristic (adj.). Related: Uncharacteristically. adjective and noun both first attested 1660s, from character + -istic on model of Greek kharakteristikos. Earlier in the adjectival sense was characteristical (1620s). Related: Characteristically (1640s). Characteristics “distinctive traits” also attested from 1660s. n.
- A distinguishing feature or attribute; character.
- A structure or function determined by a gene or genes; trait.
- The part of a logarithm to the base 10 that is to the left of the decimal point. For example, if 2.749 is a logarithm, 2 is the characteristic. Compare mantissa.