Home UK English characterize

Meaning of characterize in English:

characterize

(British characterise)

Pronunciation /ˈkarəktərʌɪz/

Translate characterize into Spanish

verb

[with object]

  • 1Describe the distinctive nature or features of.

    ‘she characterized the period as the decade of revolution’
    • ‘It's just not accurate to characterize newspaper design as anything but dynamic.’
    • ‘How could we characterise the nature of conflicts that have emerged throughout the world?’
    • ‘Some historians characterize Du Bois's thinking as riddled with contradiction.’
    • ‘Only the most revisionist historian would characterize the Confederacy as an insurgency.’
    • ‘That would involve a characterisation of those laws and there might well be difficulty in characterising those laws as anything other than penal, when one looks at the purpose of the laws.’
    • ‘A brand is simply a story or symbol, a way of describing or characterizing an idea, a product or service.’
    • ‘The second stage is characterized as a period of change in syntax and morphology yet stability in lexicon and fluency.’
    • ‘Marx characterises this period partly in terms of a change in the form of surplus value.’
    • ‘In a context such as the present, it is necessary to identify and characterise the suggested error, and relate it to the legal rubric under which a decision is challenged.’
    • ‘Mr. Kendall testified that what was being described he would characterize as a workmanship deficiency.’
    • ‘He characterises descriptive metaphysics as formulating expressions of norms of representation.’
    • ‘Mark clearly associates the storm with evil by characterizing the wind with the same language he used to describe the demon exorcised by Jesus in chapter 1.’
    • ‘It is only when he is describing the problems of performing the symphonies that he characterises them at all.’
    • ‘It used to be that when you introduced a new material, you spent 10 years characterizing it and understanding it.’
    • ‘Second, this study suggests that drugs have to be characterized also in terms of the timescale of their effects.’
    • ‘The text can be characterized in terms of its length and inherent interest.’
    • ‘However, only a small number of hotspots have been characterized in detail.’
    • ‘Because performance was so good, it was difficult to characterize differences associated with better or worse performance.’
    • ‘Such reactions have been characterized to a considerable extent for this family of proteins that exists as dimers.’
    • ‘A total of 112 such mutations have been isolated and characterized in this study.’
    distinguish, make distinctive, mark, set apart, identify, specify, signalize, indicate, denote, designate, stamp
    portray, depict, present, represent, describe, outline, delineate, show, draw, sketch
    View synonyms

  • 2(of a feature or quality) be typical or characteristic of.

    ‘the disease is characterized by weakening of the immune system’
    • ‘Australian media organizations do not seem to have been characterized by enlightened personnel practices.’
    • ‘A predilection for forms over human figures characterises her work in installation art.’
    • ‘It was a social relationship characterized by an unequal distribution of power and resources.’
    • ‘His fiction is characterized by a densely referential and ironic style and by a preoccupation with the act of writing itself.’
    • ‘The cities are characterized by low - density housing and dependence on private cars.’
    • ‘The Asian business culture is mostly characterized by relationships based on trust and confidence.’
    • ‘It is characterized by inadequate energy and a feeling that one's emotional resources are consumed.’
    • ‘At its best, the wine is characterized by ripe, firm acidity, and about 65 per cent is dry.’
    • ‘The house is characterized by peeling paint and uneven flooring that may become a danger to the occupants.’
    • ‘It is characterized by fever, rash, vomiting, diarrhea and is caused by bacteria.’
    • ‘Those early years of our young republic were characterized by chaos and confusion.’
    • ‘In spite of this the Oxford examination system is characterised by a distinct lack of accountability to the student body.’
    • ‘They believe young children developing language skills are better at picking up the more distinct vowel sounds which characterise baby talk.’
    • ‘Consistently high temperatures, with no distinct dry season, characterize the climate of this region.’
    • ‘For some, it is characterised by periods of relapse and remission, while for others it has a progressive pattern.’
    • ‘Each period of time is characterised by the ideas espoused at that time and these ideas compared with similar ones of the past.’
    • ‘Instead, he claims the period was characterised by civil wars and broken treaties.’
    • ‘The early part of the period was characterised by modest profit levels despite the vast expansion of the domestic market.’
    • ‘The cycle is characterised by a period of growth, then strong growth and then recession.’
    • ‘All boom periods have been characterised by a huge increase in personal and corporate leverage.’
    epitomize, exemplify, be representative of, represent, be characteristic of, characterize
    View synonyms

Origin

Late 16th century (in the sense ‘engrave, inscribe’): from French caractériser or medieval Latin characterizare, from Greek kharaktērizein, from kharaktēr ‘a stamping tool’.