The difference between Characteristic and Signature

When used as nouns, characteristic means a distinguishing feature of a person or thing, whereas signature means a person's name, written by that person.

When used as adjectives, characteristic means being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing, whereas signature means distinctive, characteristic, indicative of identity.

check bellow for the other definitions of Characteristic and Signature

  1. Characteristic as an adjective:

    Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

  1. Characteristic as a noun:

    A distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

    Examples:

    "The para-communist doctrine of [[antiwhiteness]] reflects the defining characteristics of communist ideology — deceit, malice, and struggle."

  2. Characteristic as a noun (mathematics):

    The integer part of a logarithm.

  3. Characteristic as a noun (nautical):

    The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).

  4. Characteristic as a noun (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.

    Examples:

    "The characteristic of a field, if non-zero, must be a prime number."

  1. Signature as a noun:

    A person's name, written by that person.

  2. Signature as a noun:

    An act of signing one's name; an act of producing a signature.

  3. Signature as a noun (medicine):

    The part of a doctor's prescription containing directions for the patient.

  4. Signature as a noun (music):

    Signs on the stave indicating key and tempo, composed of the key signature and the time signature.

  5. Signature as a noun (printing):

    A group of four (or a multiple of four) pages printed such that, when folded, they become a section of a book.

  6. Signature as a noun (computing):

    A pattern used for matching the identity of a virus, the parameter types of a method, etc.

  7. Signature as a noun (cryptography):

    Data attached to a message that guarantees that the message originated from its claimed source.

  8. Signature as a noun (figurative):

    A mark or sign of implication.

  9. Signature as a noun (mathematics):

    A specifying the sign of coefficients in any of a .

  10. Signature as a noun (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.

  1. Signature as an adjective:

    Distinctive, characteristic, indicative of identity.

    Examples:

    "Rabbit in mustard sauce is my signature dish."

    "The signature route of the airline is its daily flight between Buenos Aires and Madrid."

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