Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To describe the qualities or peculiarities of: characterized the warden as ruthless.
- v. To be a distinctive trait or mark of; distinguish: the rash and high fever that characterize this disease; a region that is characterized by its dikes and canals.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To impart a special stamp or character to; constitute a characteristic or the characteristics of; stamp or distinguish; mark; denote.
- To describe the character or give an account of the qualities of; describe by distinguishing qualities.
- To engrave, stamp, or imprint.
- Also spelled characterise.
- Synonyms To mark, designate.
Wiktionary
- v. To depict someone or something a particular way (often negative.)
- v. To determine the characteristics of.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make distinct and recognizable by peculiar marks or traits; to make with distinctive features.
- v. obsolete To engrave or imprint.
- v. To indicate the character of; to describe.
- v. To be a characteristic of; to make, or express the character of.
- v. (Chem.) to identify the structure or nature of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be characteristic of
- v. describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin characterizare, from Ancient Greek χαρακτηρίζω (kharaktērizō, "to designate by a characteristic mark"), from χαρακτήρ (kharaktēr, "a mark, character"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Clarity, pertinence, and reasonableness again characterize Weil's writing, and a hefty clutch of recipes concludes.”
“The use of it in the way you characterize is exactly as you note, and actually injects the writer’s POV into the piece.”
“Nineteenth-and early twentieth-century writers used the term to characterize abnormalities of language production (e.g., paraphasic speech, speech without content, neologisms), rather than to define aberrant concept formation and abstraction (e.g., unable to recognize the basic category of such objects as apples and pears), which also are observed in schizophrenics.”
Simon & Schuster: The Neuropsychiatric Guide to Modern Everyday Psychiatry
“(i) What, if anything, would in physical terms characterize backward causation?”
“MEADE: They kind of characterize themselves as tech heads so to speak, so they were fascinated.”
“UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, in addition to trying to respond to many of the issues and concerns and questions that you and indeed the whole world has, let me just kind of characterize how our university is trying to cope and during the process of questions and statements by Dr. Heinz (ph) and Dr. MacNamee (ph), I hope that you'll get a little flavor of that.”
“What can you -- can you kind of characterize for us what was remarkable about the investigation?”
CNN Transcript - Breaking News: Verdict Reached in Lockerbie Trial - January 31, 2001
“Are you able to kind of characterize what happened over the weekend and where you think things stand for the next day or so?”
“And were you able to kind of characterize what happened over the weekend and where you think things stand for the next day or so?”
“Q Can you kind of characterize his demeanor as he spoke to you?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘characterize’.
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A-R-A Words
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
scarab, Arawak, Sahara, Arab, pharaoh, caravan, carat, parachute, arachnid, Saran Wrap, Sarah, tarantella and 492 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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AP Rhetorical Devices
asyndeton, aphorism, polysyndeton, characterize, antagonist, antihero, audience, diction, foil, mood, motif, protagonist and 153 more...
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Words I suspect myself of overusing
amazing, intrinsic, incredibly, fascinating, totally, completely, definitely, fantastic, absolutely, remotely, really, hitherto and 16 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for characterize.
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