The defining characteristic of a human is that it is, in Aristotles words, the "rational animal."
Wikipedia foundation.
characteristic — char|ac|ter|is|tic1 W2S3 [ˌkærıktəˈrıstık] n [C usually plural] a quality or feature of something or someone that is typical of them and easy to recognize characteristic of ▪ a baby discovering the physical characteristics of objects… … Dictionary of contemporary English
characteristic — {{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}} noun ADJECTIVE ▪ defining, distinctive, distinguishing, identifying, individual, special, striking, unique ▪ Mobility is the defining characteris … Collocations dictionary
Defining equation (physics) — For common nomenclature of base quantities used in this article, see Physical quantity. For 4 vector modifications used in relativity, see Four vector. Very often defining equations are in the form of a constitutive equation, since parameters of… … Wikipedia
characteristic */*/ — I UK [ˌkærɪktəˈrɪstɪk] / US [ˌkerəktəˈrɪstɪk] noun [countable] Word forms characteristic : singular characteristic plural characteristics a particular quality or feature that is typical of someone or something In the future parents may be able to … English dictionary
characteristic — char|ac|ter|is|tic1 [ ,kerəktə rıstık ] noun count ** a particular quality or feature that is typical of someone or something: In the future parents may be able to choose their children s physical characteristics. the main/defining/distinguishing … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
defining — adj. Defining is used with these nouns: ↑attribute, ↑characteristic, ↑feature, ↑moment, ↑trait … Collocations dictionary
characteristic — 1. noun interesting characteristics Syn: attribute, feature, quality, essential quality, property, trait, aspect, element, facet; mannerism, habit, custom, idiosyncrasy, peculiarity, quirk, oddity, foible 2. adjective … Thesaurus of popular words
characteristic — Synonyms and related words: affection, affective, appropriate, aroma, attribute, automatism, bad habit, badge, banner, birthmark, body build, brand, cachet, cast, categorical, character, characteristics, characterizing, classificational,… … Moby Thesaurus
defining — Synonyms and related words: categorical, characteristic, classificational, classificatory, confining, definitive, denominative, differential, distinctive, divisional, divisionary, exclusive, limitary, limitative, limiting, ordinal, particular,… … Moby Thesaurus
Equations defining abelian varieties — In mathematics, the concept of abelian variety is the higher dimensional generalization of the elliptic curve. The equations defining abelian varieties are a topic of study because every abelian variety is a projective variety. In dimension d ge; … Wikipedia
