attribute vs characteristic

attribute

noun
  • A characteristic or quality of a thing. 

  • That which is predicated or affirmed of a subject; a predicate; an accident. 

  • A semantic item with which a method or other code element may be decorated. 

  • An object that is considered typical of someone or some function, in particular as an artistic convention. 

  • A word that qualifies a noun. 

  • An option or setting belonging to some object. 

verb
  • To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc. 

  • To associate ownership or authorship of (something) to someone. 

characteristic

noun
  • A distinguishing feature of a person or thing. 

  • For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together yield the additive identity (0) or, if no such number exists, the number 0. 

  • The integer part of a logarithm. 

  • The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.). 

adj
  • Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing. 

How often have the words attribute and characteristic occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )