2 meanings
(click/touch triangles for details)
1 —as in:
It is an attribute of...
Definition
a characteristic (of something or someone)- The spreadsheet has a column to describe the breed of dog and then ten additional columns to indicate attributes of the breeds. For example the second column has the average full-grown weight.
attributes = characteristics
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- She described his physical attributes.
- A key attribute of amphibians is that they use gills prior to metamorphosing to use lungs.
- Flexibility of mind, a disposition easily biased by others, is an attribute which you know I am not very desirous of obtainingJane Austen -- Lady Susan
- "The fourth essential attribute," the Chief Elder said, "is wisdom."Lois Lowry -- The Giver
- those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?Abraham Lincoln -- Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
- Patience had never been one of her strongest attributes.Nicholas Sparks -- The Notebook
- One of Sukeena's many wonderful attributes is her ability to remain calm and consistent.Stephen King -- Rose Red
- For all that, it has never been my position that good accent and command of language are not attractive attributes, and I always considered it my duty to develop them as best I could.Kazuo Ishiguro -- The Remains of the Day
- I knew that all the attributes he was teased for, at age five, were going to work in his favor by the time he was thirty-five, but I couldn't get him there overnight.Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes
attributes = characteristics
attribute = characteristic (of something or someone)
attribute = characteristic (of something or someone)
attribute = characteristic
attributes = characteristics
attributes = characteristics
attributes = characteristics (of something or someone)
attributes = characteristics (of something or someone)
attributes = traits (characteristics)
2 —as in:
I attribute it to...
Definition
to credit (a source for something)in two typical senses:
- "I attribute it to her work." — to say who or what made something happen
- "Remember to attribute any quotations in your paper." — indicate the source of a quotation or idea
- She attributed this quotation to Shakespeare.
attributed = credited (pointed to a source for something)
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- She attributes her success to hard work.
- Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.Hanlon's Razor
- As usual, he didn't ask about my day, preferring to work in silence. Yesterday I'd attributed it to the fact that we were strangers; today I understood that there was a possibility we always would be.Nicholas Sparks -- Dear John
- Was he really a coward, as his son had so brutally pointed out? Certainly, in World War I, he considered himself one. He attributed his survival to it.Markus Zusak -- The Book Thief
- Great floods and rains had swollen the waters that flowed east; and there had been an earthquake or two (which some were inclined to attribute to the dragon)...J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Hobbit
- Much of the marble coldness of Hester's impression was to be attributed to the circumstance that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling to thought.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- Perhaps some of the merchants were a little generous in their trades, but I always attributed that to their long-standing relationship with my father.Suzanne Collins -- The Hunger Games
- This, then, is his new scheme of evil, ... and that any wickedness which he may do shall by the local people be attributed to me.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
- I couldn't help the little gasp that escaped. Lucky me, they all attributed it to the general excitement of the news.Kiera Cass -- The Selection
attributes = gives credit for
attribute = credit (point to as the source of something)
attributed = credited (pointed to as the cause of)
attributed = credited (pointed to as the cause of)
attribute = credit (point to as the cause of)
attributed = credited (pointed to as the cause of something)
attributed = credited (pointed to as the cause of)
attributed = credited (pointed to as the source of something)
attributed = credited (believed something happened due to something else)