characteristic

Everyday

1. A characteristic is a special quality or feature that helps you tell one thing or person from another, like a tiger's stripes. tree →
2. (adjective) Characteristic means typical of someone or something: «his characteristic smile». tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons we sort animals and plants by their characteristics (legs, fur, wings). In maths, shapes have characteristics such as the number of sides and corners. In stories it describes what a character is like. Phrases: «a characteristic of», «characteristic of», «physical characteristics».

Examples

• One characteristic of birds is that they have feathers. tree →
• A square's characteristics: four equal sides and four right angles. tree →
• Kindness is her best characteristic. tree →
• Sorting animals by their characteristics. tree →
• He gave his characteristic loud laugh. tree →
• It is characteristic of cats to sleep a lot. tree →

Note

Countable as a noun. Long word: char-ac-ter-IS-tic. Similar words: feature, trait, quality, property (in maths and science). In maths sorting, list each characteristic and check it for every shape.