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• n  a prominent attribute or aspect of something
  generosity is one of his best characteristics
• n  a distinguishing quality
• n  the integer part (positive or negative) of the representation of a logarithm; in the expression log 643 = 2.808 the characteristic is 2
• n  any measurable property of a device measured under closely specified conditions
• a  typical or distinctive
  heard my friend's characteristic laugh
  red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn
  stripes characteristic of the zebra

• As the buzz of the characteristic fruit fly "love song" fills the air, the males repeatedly lurch forward and rub genitals with the next ones in line.
• What is capitalism with Chinese characteristics?' It's fake capitalism.
• So she finally turned him down, explaining with characteristic bluntness.

• feature
• device characteristic

• uncharacteristic

News & Articles

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• Optimized Photon-Counting Detector With No Dark Counts Enables Quantum-Mechanics Experiment
  To conduct an important quantum-mechanics experiment, an international team of researchers had to create an extremely efficient photon-counting detector; the type they chose was a transition-edge sensor (TES), which has no dark counts whatsoever -- a characteristic required for their precision experiment.
  June 13, 2013 - PhotonicsOnline
• Toshiba Develops World's First Multi-level-cell Structure MROM Cell
  Toshiba Corporation today announced that the development of the world's first MROM cell to offer improved cell current characteristics without any increase in cell size.
  June 13, 2013 - Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
• Pryor and the politics of provincialism
  Provincialism — that sense that Arkansans have limited use for the world beyond Arkansas's borders — has been a defining characteristic of the state's politics and society for its entire existence. by Jay Barth Provincialism — that sense that Arkansans have limited use for the world beyond Arkansas's borders — has been a defining characteristic of the state's politics and society for its entire ...
  June 12, 2013 - Arkansas Times

Quotes

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• Kenny MacAskill in NECN
  In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity. It is viewed as a defining characteristic of Scotland and the Scottish people,MacAskill said. "The perpetration of an atrocity, and outrage, cannot and should not be a basis...
• Robert Gates in FOXNews
  I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century,Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
• Eric Schmidt in Inquirer
  Ok, it worked,he said he told them. "Congratulations - we're stopping. We like that flexibility, we think that flexibility is characteristic of nimbleness at our scale."