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Definitions (21)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

transitive verb To relate to a particular cause or source; ascribe: attributed their failure to a lack of preparation.
transitive verb To regard as the work of a specified agent, place, or time: attributed the painting to Titian; attributed the vase to 18th-century Japan.
noun A quality or characteristic inherent in or ascribed to someone or something.

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Century Dictionary (9)

To ascribe; impute; consider as belonging or as due; assign. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer. Shak., All's Well, iii. 6. Narrow views of religion tend to attribute to God an arbitrary and capricious action, not in harmony with either science or the Bible. Dawson, Nat. and the Bible, p. 12. He does not hesitate to attribute the disease from which they suffered to those depressing moral influences to which they were subjected. O. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 2. The burning of New York was generally attributed to New England incendiaries. Lecky, Eng. in 18th Cent., xiv.
Synonyms Attribute, Ascribe, Refer, Impute, Charge, have two meanings in common: they may assign some attribute, quality, or appurtenance to a person or thing, or they may connect different things, as an effect with its cause. Refer is the weakest. Attribute is stronger: as, to attribute omniscience to God; to attribute failure to incompetence. Ascribe, being most manifestly figurative, is the strongest and most common; it is rarely used in a bad sense. That which is imputed in the first sense named is generally but not always bad: as, to impute folly to a man. To impute anything good seems an archaic mode of expression. Impute is not very common in the second sense: as, to impute one's troubles to one's follies. The theological meaning of impute, that of laying to a person's account something good or bad that does not belong to him, has affected but little the popular use of the word. That which is charged, in either of the senses named, is bad: as, “His angels he charged with folly,” Job iv. 18; I charged it to their youth and inexperience. The word is a strong one, on account of its connection with legal processes, etc. The singular excellence to which eloquence attained at Athens is to be mainly attributed to the influence which it exerted there. Macaulay, Athenian Orators. I have never yet encountered that bitter spirit of bigotry which is so frequently ascribed to Mohammedans. B. Taylor, Lands of the Saracen, p. 24. The salts, predominant in quick lime, we refer rather to lixiviate than acid. Boyle, Colours. I desire that what I have said may not be imputed to the colonies. I am a private person, and do not write by their direction. Franklin, Life, p. 387. What you have charg′d me with, that have I done, And more, much more. Shak., Lear, v. 3.
In logic, that which is predicated or affirmed of a subject; a predicate; an accident. A predicate, the exact limits of which are not determined, cannot be used to define and determine a subject. It may be called an attribute, and conveys not the whole nature of the subject, but some one quality belonging to it. Abp. Thomson, Laws of Thought, p. 120. The term attribute simply directs the attention to the fact that we attribute to, or affirm of, a being something that we distinguish from itself. N. Porter, Human Intellect, § 642.

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Examples (50)

This attribute is a great way to provide more information about your items, which in turn will help users find them.Oh, and while you're at it, don't forget about some of our other great attributes.
In the SDK documentation the data attribute is a string property. — MSDN Blogs
Setting Attribute Value Permissions If the attribute is an  enumerated type, access may be restricted to its individual values. — Recently Uploaded Slideshows
This attribute might be accessed if you were to inherit — The Code Project Latest Articles
The tagname attribute is the name of the user control and tagprefix is used to determine a — MSDN Blogs

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trait · quality · characteristic · manifestation · symbol · conception · virtue · faculty · entity · significance · distinction · personality

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attribute: attributes · attributed · attributing

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Latin attribuere, attribūt- : ad-, ad- + tribuere, to allot; see tribute.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Latin attributus, past participle of attribuere, assign, from ad, to, + tribuere, give, assign, bestow: see tribute.
from Latin attributum, predicate, attribute, literally what is ascribed, neuter of attributus, past participle of attribuere, ascribe, attribute: see attribute, v.

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