characteristic vs heterogeneous

characteristic

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

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.). 

heterogeneous

adj
  • Diverse in kind or nature; composed of diverse parts. 

  • Incommensurable because of different kinds. 

  • Visibly consisting of different components. 

  • Of a network comprising different types of computers, potentially with vastly differing memory sizes, processing power and even basic underlying architecture; alternatively, of a data resource with multiple types of formats. 

  • Having more than one phase (solid, liquid, gas) present in a system or process. 

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