There are features that can only be seen with a microscope.
A characteristic is a quality that allows us to identify something or someone, distinguishing it from its peers. It can be a question of temperament, personality or symbolism, but also of physical appearance. For example: “The police released the characteristics of the attacker to alert the population” , “I have already asked the supplier to inform me about the characteristics of the new machine” , “This device has a special feature: it turns off when it gets hot” .
Characteristics, therefore, make the character of a living being or thing unique and specific. Saying that a man is tall, dark-skinned, talkative, friendly and respectful is listing his personal characteristics.
It is important to note that certain characteristics are subjective. In the example above, the subject's sympathy may not be so for a certain person. Height, on the other hand, is a relative fact: if we leave aside the metric value, each person judges the height of others based on their own, so the same individual can be considered tall or short, depending on who is observing them.
Characteristics of humans and animals
Although humans share traits with other animals, if we talk about the characteristics that identify a dog, for example, it is correct to point out that they walk on four legs, that their bodies are covered in fur (so that they do not need artificial shelter to withstand the cold) and that their sense of smell allows them to identify odors at great distances and with great precision.
From the perspective of modern humans, other animals are usually characterized by having better senses, more physical strength (and willpower, in most cases), more skill and great compassion. Throughout our evolution , we have become less and less capable of surviving in the wild without artificial tools and accessories; although an extreme situation may force us to draw on strength we thought we did not have, at first glance we do not have what it takes to face day to day life in the jungle or in a forest.
Having a highly developed sense of smell is a characteristic of dogs.
For every athlete who dazzles us with his somersaults, for every figure skater who spins four times in the air after launching himself off the ice with boots with a blade-shaped base, for every football player who can stand up and use his muscles intensely for dozens of minutes, there are thousands, millions of people who drag their briefcase from home to the office and who can't cope with their back pain, who can't move around freely without their glasses and who eat so poorly that they are overweight or underweight .
In short, one characteristic that distinguishes us from other species is that we do not usually take advantage of our potential, either physically or mentally; based on the examples in the previous paragraph, it is not normal for us all to be athletes, but rather for us to admire the few who exploit their abilities at that level.
The notion in telephony and role-playing games
In some Latin American countries, the characteristic is the prefix of a telephone : “I am trying to call Carlos but a recording tells me that the characteristic is incorrect” , “If the number you were given has the characteristic 238, it is in the Loma Verde neighborhood” .
In a role-playing game , finally, the characteristics are the properties that define the characters that participate in the game , whether physical or psychological. Some of the most common are strength, speed, intelligence, size and willpower. It is worth mentioning that both the characters controlled by the players and the others must be described by these properties, so that their interaction with the environment and with the other characters can give rise to a phenomenon that affects the flow of the story.