attribute

Plural: attributes

Noun

• a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished
• an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
• A characteristic or quality of a thing.
• An object that is considered typical of someone or some function, in particular as an artistic convention.
• A word that qualifies a noun.
• That which is predicated or affirmed of a subject; a predicate; an accident.
• An option or setting belonging to some object.
• A semantic item with which a method or other code element may be decorated.
• A numeric value representing the colours of part of the screen display.

Verb

• attribute or credit to
  • "We attributed this quotation to Shakespeare"
• decide as to where something belongs in a scheme
• To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc.; to affix.
• To associate ownership or authorship of (something) to someone.

Examples

• A file with the read-only attribute set cannot be overwritten.
• His finest attribute is his kindness.
• Properties can be marked as obsolete with an attribute, which will cause the compiler to generate a warning if they are used.
• The eagle and the bolt of lightning are attributes of Jove.
• This packet has its coherency attribute set to zero.
• This poem is attributed to Browning.

Synonyms

ascribe, assign, dimension, impute, property, lay, qualifier, refer

Related Words

attributive