What is the difference between the word "attributes" and the word "characteristics"?

An attribute is a quality or characteristic given to a person, group, or some other thing. Your best attribute might be your willingness to help others, like when you stopped traffic so the duck family could cross the street.

Attribute comes from the Latin verb attribuere, which is made up the prefix ad, meaning "to," and tribuere meaning "give or bestow." As a verb, to attribute is to give credit, like if you attribute the A on your test to all that hard studying. In Greek and Roman mythology an attribute will often stand in for a character such as Zeus's lightning bolt or Poseidon's trident.

http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/attrib...

If something is a characteristic of someone or something, it is a feature you would expect. A characteristic of classical-style architecture is large stone columns. A characteristic of poodles is their pom-pom like tails.

A characteristic feature needn't just be a something physically apparent, it can describe a type of personality or atmosphere as well, as in: "The characteristic of all funeral homes is their gloomy air." As their spelling and meaning implies, there is a close link between the words characteristic and character, meaning the essential nature of a thing, and in fact both words come from the ancient Greek kharackter, meaning a "symbol or imprint on the soul."

http://dictionary.infoplease.com/characteristic

attribute

2. a property, quality, or feature belonging to or representative of a person or thing

3. an object accepted as belonging to a particular office or position

4. (grammar)

1. an adjective or adjectival phrase

2. an attributive adjective

5. (logic) the property, quality, or feature that is affirmed or denied concerning the subject of a proposition

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/englis...

http://www.answers.com/topic/attribute

characteristic

1. a distinguishing quality, attribute, or trait

2. (mathematics)

1. the integral part of a common logarithm, indicating the order of magnitude of the associated number ⇒ "the characteristic of 2.4771 is 2"

Compare mantissa

2. another name for exponent, used esp in number representation in computing

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/englis...

attribute - A quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone or something:

A material object recognized as symbolic of a person, especially a conventional object used in art to identify a saint or mythical figure.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/am...

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=at...