What's the difference between characteristic and epicene?

Characteristic


Definition:

  • (a.) Pertaining to, or serving to constitute, the character; showing the character, or distinctive qualities or traits, of a person or thing; peculiar; distinctive.
  • (n.) A distinguishing trait, quality, or property; an element of character; that which characterized.
  • (n.) The integral part (whether positive or negative) of a logarithm.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The assembly reaction is accompanied by characteristic changes in fluorescence emission and dichroic absorption.
  • (2) The angiographic appearances are highly characteristic and equal in value to a histological diagnosis.
  • (3) The femoral component, made of Tivanium with titanium mesh attached to it by a new process called diffusion bonding, retains superalloy fatigue strength characteristics.
  • (4) Structure assignment of the isomeric immonium ions 5 and 6, generated via FAB from N-isobutyl glycine and N-methyl valine, can be achieved by their collision induced dissociation characteristics.
  • (5) The effects of sessions, individual characteristics, group behavior, sedative medications, and pharmacological anticipation, on simple visual and auditory reaction time were evaluated with a randomized block design.
  • (6) It is quite interesting to analyse which gene of the virus determines the characteristics of the virus.
  • (7) In this paper, we show representative experiments illustrating some characteristics of the procedure which may have wide application in clinical microbiology.
  • (8) The clinical and radiologic characteristics of this unusual tumor are discussed.
  • (9) The dependence of fluorescence polarization of stained nerve fibres on the angle between the fibre axis and electrical vector of exciting light (azimuth characteristics) has been considered.
  • (10) Extensive studies during recent years have shown that the interaction between hormone and membrane-bound receptor can affect the receptor characteristics in at least two ways.
  • (11) These cells contained organelles characteristic of the maturation stage ameloblast and often extended to the enamel surface, suggesting a possible origin from the ameloblast layer.
  • (12) The correlates of three characteristics of familial networks (i.e., residential proximity, family affection, and family contact) were examined among a national sample of older Black Americans.
  • (13) The performance characteristics of the CCD are well documented and understood, having been quantified by many experimenters, especially in the physical sciences.
  • (14) The obtained results are used to study the relation between the acoustic characteristics of these vowels and the corresponding articulatory dimensions.
  • (15) Importantly, these characteristics were strong predictors of subsequent mortality.
  • (16) These same molecules may be equally responsible for the pathologic characteristics of the immune response seen, for example, in inflammatory bowel diseases.
  • (17) Periosteal chondroma is an uncommon benign cartilagenous lesion, and its importance lies primarily in its characteristic radiographic and pathologic appearance which should be of assistance in the differential diagnosis of eccentric lesions of bones.
  • (18) In the case of nonspecific loading highly trained individuals may have low VT values close to the level characteristic for normal subjects.
  • (19) This exploratory survey of 100 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was conducted (1) to learn about the types and frequencies of disability law-related problems encountered as a result of having RA, and (2) to assess the respective relationships between the number of disability law-related problems reported and the patients' sociodemographic and RA disease characteristics.
  • (20) These two types of transfer functions are appropriate to explain the transition to anaerobic metabolism (anaerobic threshold), with a hyperbolic transfer characteristic representing a graded transition; and a sigmoid transfer characteristic representing an abrupt transition.

Epicene


Definition:

  • (a. & n.) Common to both sexes; -- a term applied, in grammar, to such nouns as have but one form of gender, either the masculine or feminine, to indicate animals of both sexes; as boy^s, bos, for the ox and cow; sometimes applied to eunuchs and hermaphrodites.
  • (a. & n.) Fig.: Sexless; neither one thing nor the other.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He arrived in Rome from Milan in 1592 and, having trained under a succession of minor masters, painted a series of strange and erotic genre pieces featuring epicene boys and still-lifes – pictures such as Boy With a Basket of Fruit and Boy Bitten by a Lizard , both from 1593-94.
  • (2) The most ambiguous of his re-creations, epicene black singer, Grace Jones , has just launched the video of her stage act.