different between characterize vs depict

English

Alternative forms

• characterise

Etymology

From Medieval Latin characterizare, from Ancient Greek ??????????? (kharakt?ríz?, “to designate by a characteristic mark”), from ???????? (kharakt?r, “a mark, character”). Synchronically analyzable as character +? -ize.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k???kt??a?z/, /?kæ??kt??a?z/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt??a?z/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter?ize

Verb

characterize (third-person singular simple present characterizes, present participle characterizing, simple past and past participle characterized)

1. (transitive) To depict someone or something a particular way (often negative).
2. (transitive) To be typical of.
3. (transitive) To determine the characteristics of.

Derived terms

• characterization
• subcharacterize

Translations

Further reading

• characterize in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• characterize in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?pictus, from d?pingere, from d?ping?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??p?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

depict (third-person singular simple present depicts, present participle depicting, simple past and past participle depicted)

1. To render a representation of something, using words, sounds, images, or other means. [from early 15th c.]

   Synonyms: portray, express, exhibit, register, show, describe, visualise, draw, render, depicture

   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Book 4, Chapter 12, p. 189,^[1]

     And by [these Embassadours] he sent to their master a Tent, wherein the history of the Bible was as richly as curiously depicted in needle-work;

   • 1770, Thomas Chatterton, The Auction, a Poem: A Familiar Epistle to a Friend, London: George Kearsly, p. ,^[2]

     The Spring, when all its beauties rise,

     I see depicted in your eyes

   • 1984, Lawrence Starr, "Toward a Reevaluation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess," American Music, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 27,

     The well-known words depict a woman seeking sanctuary in a love relationship form a brutal, rapacious man.

   • 1987, Niall O'Loughlin, "Music Reviews: 20th-century guitar," The Musical Times, vol. 128, no. 1734, p. 443,

     Here the music depicts the delicate pattern of ice on windows.

   • 1994, E. Pennisi, "Breathe (xenon) deeply to see lungs clearly," Science News, vol. 146, no. 5, p. 70 (caption),

     False-color computer images depict lungs removed from a mouse.

Usage notes

The subjects of the verb include words, music and images.

Related terms

• depiction
• depictive

Translations

Adjective

depict (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Depicted.
   • Early 1400s, John Lydgate, “The Concords of Company” in James Orchard Halliwell (ed.), A Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate, London: The Percy Society, 1840, p. 177,^[3]

     I fond a lyknesse depict upon a wal,

     Armed in vertues, as I walk up and doun,

     The hed of thre ful solempne and roial,

     Intellectus, memorye, and resoun;