Characteristic

Characteristic (from the Greek word for a property or attribute (= trait) of an entity) may refer to:

In physics and engineering, any characteristic curve that shows the relationship between certain input and output parameters, for example:

• I-V or current-voltage characteristic, the current in a circuit as a function of the applied voltage
• Receiver operating characteristic

In navigation:

• Light characteristic, pattern of a lighted beacon

In mathematics:

• Characteristic (algebra) of a ring, the smallest common cycle length of the ring's addition operation
• Characteristic function (disambiguation), usually the indicator function of a subset, though the term has other meanings in specific domains
• Characteristic polynomial, a polynomial associated to a square matrix in linear algebra
• Euler characteristic, a topological invariant
• Characteristic subgroup, a subgroup that is invariant under all automorphisms in group theory
• Method of characteristics, a technique for solving partial differential equations
• Characteristic, integer part of a common logarithm

In fiction:

• Another name for ability score in Dungeons & Dragons