characteristically
part of speech
adverb
meaning for a pupil
1) In a way that is typical of a particular person or thing; as they usually do: «Characteristically, Grandma brought cake.» tree →
2) In a way that shows a special feature of something: «The leaves are characteristically heart-shaped.» tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories it tells the reader that a character acted just as you would expect from them. In science it describes the typical features used to recognise a plant, animal or material. Related: «characteristic» (a typical feature), «typically».
examples
- Characteristically, Toad crashed the car on his first day. tree →
- The cat characteristically ignored us when we came home. tree →
- Holly leaves are characteristically spiky. tree →
- She answered characteristically fast, with her hand up first. tree →
- Characteristically for a cheetah, it sprinted and then rested. tree →
- He was characteristically late for the bus. tree →
- The weather was characteristically wet for a Manchester spring. tree →
note
Long word: char-ac-ter-IS-tic-al-ly (ends in «-ally», not «-aly»). Opposite: «uncharacteristically» (not like them at all). Means the same as «typically» but more formal.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «characteristically» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.