different between highness vs characterize

English

Alternative forms

• highnesse (archaic)
• 'ighness (pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From Middle English hyghnesse; equivalent to high +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ha?n?s/
• Rhymes: -a?n?s

Noun

highness (usually uncountable, plural highnesses)

1. The state of being high.
   • 1672, George Swinnock, The Incomparableness of God

     'It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do?' It is as the highnesses of heaven: take all the heights and elevations, all the spheres and altitudes of heaven, and try if thou canst reach them with thy short arm; yea, climb up the highest storeys, the loftiest pinnacles, […]

Translations

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.