characteristic vs distinctive

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. 

distinctive

noun
  • A distinctive thing: a quality or property permitting distinguishing; a characteristic. 

  • A distinctive belief, tenet, or dogma of a denomination or sect. 

  • A distinctive accent. 

adj
  • Distinguished, being distinct in character or position. 

  • Distinguishing a particular sense of word. 

  • Distinguishing, used to or enabling the distinguishing of some thing. 

  • Discriminating, discerning, having the ability to distinguish between things. 

  • Characteristic, typical. 

  • Used to separate clauses in place of stops. 

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