noun

• 1A distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person.

  ‘he was a letter-of-the-law man, a common trait among coaches’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Lying is one of the most human of traits that really distinguishes us from the rest of the animal world.’
  • ‘It must be common trait among women, being better at cooking once you're married.’
  • ‘In talking with the many men, she had come to distinguish similar traits in all of them.’
  • ‘Completely inhabiting his character's traits and quirks, he is tailor made for the role.’
  • ‘The distinction being that personality traits dictate how people use and abuse drugs.’
  • ‘A recognised trait among gamblers is that you are likely to spend more when you are not physically handing over money.’
  • ‘But they all share a common trait - frustration at the obstacles put in the way of progress.’
  • ‘This is not a common trait in oncologists, or other doctors who deal with death on a daily basis.’
  • ‘Insomnia is also a common trait of anyone who uses computers for more than a few hours a day.’
  • ‘Also, at least in maturity, people seem to have relatively stable character traits.’
  • ‘It may seem facile, but teams do reflect the traits and characteristics of their coaches.’
  • ‘It could take you years to really know a city, but you can pick up on its character traits in about an hour.’
  • ‘There will always be some distinct personality trait that will set them apart from one another.’
  • ‘One of her brother's more admirable personality traits was his general lack of prejudice.’
  • ‘Absorption is a personality trait associated with fantasy proneness, vivid imagery and so forth.’
  • ‘The F, or femininity, scale measures socially desirable personality traits perceived to be stereotypically characteristic of women.’
  • ‘He re-read his father's autobiography and realised they shared many character traits.’
  • ‘A character trait shared by many program managers is a belief they will complete their project on schedule within budget.’
  • ‘Humility is the finest of all virtues and is the source of all admirable character traits.’
  • ‘There were no differences between groups in their self-reported worry and trait anxiety.’

  Synonyms

  characteristic, attribute, feature, quality, essential quality, property, distinction, idiosyncrasy, peculiarity, quirk, foible, singularity, oddity, eccentricity, abnormality, mark, trademark, hallmark, earmark

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1A genetically determined characteristic.
     ‘breeders were installing some trait that allowed the crop to thrive’
     More example sentences

     • ‘They have lived on, the recessive traits in our genetic coding, and they have emerged in us.’
     • ‘This suggests that these traits are genetically controlled depending on the growth stages of leaves.’
     • ‘Most of her seeds are chosen because of the parents' hardy traits, so the genetic base of the garden is superb.’
     • ‘In fact IQ is a great example of a trait that is highly heritable but not genetically determined.’
     • ‘To be honest it's an eye opener, and the definite implication is that we can't help acting upon our genetic traits.’
     • ‘The people who emerged from this genetic bottleneck had traits never before seen in human beings.’
     • ‘They say the teachers were simply trying to teach genetics and family traits.’
     • ‘Nevertheless, dispersal can interact with other traits in determining plant fitness.’
     • ‘These parameters could be considered as quantitative traits and characterize a genotype.’
     • ‘In the latter case, the male and female traits may drift along the line of equilibria.’
     • ‘Furthermore, by inbreeding his livestock he fixed and exaggerated those traits he felt to be desirable.’
     • ‘Repeatability of evolution of quantitative traits is influenced by the genetic substrate for selection and genetic correlations among traits.’
     • ‘An underlying factor may be any measurable value, continuous or discrete, that influences the phenotypic traits of interest.’
     • ‘Here we identify three reproductive strategies of adult male grackles and the phenotypic traits associated with each strategy.’
     • ‘The relationships between the genetic variability of complex agronomic traits and traits for these two enzymes are discussed.’
     • ‘Studies of genetic variation of morphological traits in natural populations of mammals are essential to understanding their evolution.’
     • ‘For example, a child may inherit certain traits from his parents such as height.’
     • ‘Body mass is one of the most common sexually selected male traits among animal taxa.’
     • ‘The most common traits created in GM crops are herbicide tolerance or insect resistance.’