The difference between Characteristic and Typical

When used as nouns, characteristic means a distinguishing feature of a person or thing, whereas typical means anything that is typical, normal, or standard.

When used as adjectives, characteristic means being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing, whereas typical means capturing the overall sense of a thing.

check bellow for the other definitions of Characteristic and Typical

  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. Typical as an adjective:

    Capturing the overall sense of a thing.

  2. Typical as an adjective:

    Characteristically representing something by form, group, idea or type.

  3. Typical as an adjective:

    Normal, average; to be expected.

  1. Typical as a noun:

    Anything that is typical, normal, or standard.

    Examples:

    "Antipsychotic drugs can be divided into typicals and atypicals."

    "Among the moths, typicals were more common than melanics."

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