different between signature vs characteristic

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French signature, or from Medieval Latin signatura, future active periphrastic of verb signare (“to sign”) from signum (“sign”), + -tura, feminine of -turus, future active periphrastic suffix.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s??n?t??(r)/, /?s??n?t??(r)/
• (US) enPR: s?g?n?ch?r, s?g?n?ch?r, IPA^(key): /?s??n?t??/, /?s??n?t??/

Noun

signature (plural signatures)

2. A person's name, written by that person, used as identification or to signify approval of accompanying material, such as a legal contract.
3. An act of signing one's name; an act of producing a signature.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:signature.
4. (medicine) The part of a doctor’s prescription containing directions for the patient.
5. (music) Signs on the stave indicating key and tempo, composed of the key signature and the time signature.
6. (printing) A group of four (or a multiple of four) sheets printed such that, when folded, they become a section of a book.
7. (computing) A pattern used for matching the identity of a virus, the parameter types of a method, etc.
8. (cryptography) Data attached to a message that guarantees that the message originated from its claimed source.
9. (figuratively) A mark or sign of implication.
   • 1975, United States. Office of Noise Abatement and Control, First Report on Status and Progress of Noise Research and Control Programs in the Federal Government (volume 1, page 6-13)

     The TACOM Vehicle Signature Reduction program is concerned with reducing the noise signature detectability of military vehicles in combat.
10. A dish that is characteristic of a particular chef.
11. (mathematics) A tuple specifying the sign of coefficients in any diagonal form of a quadratic form.
12. (medicine, obsolete) A resemblance between the external character of a disease and those of some physical agent, for instance, that existing between the red skin of scarlet fever and a red cloth; supposed to indicate this agent in the treatment of the disease.
13. (Internet) Text (or images, etc.) appended to a user's emails, newsgroup posts, forum posts, etc. as a way of adding a personal touch or including contact details.

    Synonyms: sig, siggy

Hyponyms

• biosignature

Derived terms

• signature-compatible

Translations

See also

• autograph

Adjective

signature (not generally comparable, comparative more signature, superlative most signature)

1. Distinctive, characteristic, indicative of identity.
   • 2001, Lawrence J. Vale, Sam Bass Warner, Imaging the city: continuing struggles and new directions,

     Consider Las Fallas of Valencia, Spain, arguably the most signature of signature ephemera.

   • 2005, Paul Duchscherer, Linda Svendsen, Beyond the bungalow: grand homes in the arts & crafts tradition,

     Considered the most signature effect of the Tudor Revival style, half-timbering derived its distinctive […] .

   • 2005, Brett Dawson, Tales from the 2004-05 Fighting Illini,

     But it was perhaps the most signature shot Williams ever made in an Illinois uniform, a bullying basket in which he used his power to pound Stoudamire, […] .

   • 2005, CBS News website, Paul Winchell Dead At Age 82,

     He credited his wife, who is British, for giving him the inspiration for Tigger’s signature phrase: TTFN. TA-TA for now.

Translations

References

• signature at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• antisurge, gauntries, sautering

French

Etymology

signer +? -ture; cf. Medieval Latin signatura.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.?a.ty?/

Noun

signature f (plural signatures)

1. signature (a person's name written in their own handwriting)

   désavouer sa signature

2. the act of signing

   Le décret est à la signature.

Related terms

• signer
• signataire

Further reading

• “signature” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Participle

sign?t?re

1. vocative masculine singular of sign?t?rus

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????????????? (kharakt?ristikós), from ??????????? (kharakt?ríz?, “to designate by a characteristic mark”), from ???????? (kharakt?r, “a mark, character”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt????st?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k???kt????st?k/
• Rhymes: -?st?k
• Hyphenation: char?ac?te?ris?tic

Adjective

characteristic (comparative more characteristic, superlative most characteristic)

1. Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

Synonyms

• distinctive
• exclusive
• idiosyncratic
• indicative
• representative
• signature
• specific
• typical

Antonyms

• uncharacteristic
• untypical

Derived terms

• characteristic function
• characteristicness

Translations

Noun

characteristic (plural characteristics)

1. A distinguishing feature of a person or thing.
2. (mathematics) The integer part of a logarithm.
   • 1830, Solomon Pearson Miles, Thomas Sherwin, Mathematical Tables: Comprising Logarithms of Numbers, […] , page 69,

     It is evident, moreover, that as the logarithms of numbers, which are tenfold, the one of the other, do not differ except in their characteristics, it is sufficient that the tables contain the fractional parts only of the logarithms.

   • 1911, F. T. Swanwick, Elementary Trigonometry, Cambridge University Press, page 60,

     As the sine and cosine are always proper fractions their logarithms are negative, i.e. have negative characteristics. When we are given an angle, it is impossible to say, from inspection of the angle, what the characteristic of the logarithm of its sine, cosine or tangent may be; so the characteristics have to be printed with the mantissae.

   • 1961, Principles and Applications of Mathematics for Communications-Electronics, [U.S.] Department of the Army, page 69,

     Similarly, the characteristic for .003 is ?3, and the characteristic for .0003 is ?4.

3. (nautical) The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).
4. (algebra, field theory, ring theory) For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together yield the additive identity (0) or, if no such number exists, the number 0.
   • 1962 [John Wiley & Sons], Nathan Jacobson, Lie Algebras, 1979, Dover, page 289,

     In this chapter we study the problem of classifying the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over an arbitrary field of characteristic 0.

   • 1992, Simeon Ivanov (translator), P. M. Gudivok, E. Ya. Pogorilyak, On Modular Representations of Finite Groups over Integral Domains, Simeon Ivanov (editor), Galois Theory, Rings, Algebraic Groups and Their Applications, American Mathematical Society, page 87,

     Let R be a Noetherian factorial ring of characteristic p which is not a field.

   • 1993, S. Warner, Topological Rings, Elsevier (North-Holland), page 424,

     Traditionally, a complete, discretely valued field of characteristic zero, the maximal ideal of whose valuation ring is generated by the prime number p, has been called a p-adic field. In our terminology, the valuation ring of a p-adic field is a Cohen ring of characteristic zero whose residue field has characteristic p, and consequently a p-adic field is simply the quotient field of such a Cohen ring.

Synonyms

• (distinguishing feature of a person or thing): attribute, hallmark, idiosyncrasy, mannerism, quality, tendency, trademark, trait
• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Coordinate terms

• (part of a logarithm): mantissa

Derived terms

• defining characteristic

Related terms

• characteristically

Translations

See also

• mantissa

Further reading

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

Interlingua

Adjective

characteristic (not comparable)

1. characteristic

Related terms

• characteristica