I. at ‧ tri ‧ bute 1 AC /əˈtrɪbjuːt $ -bjət/ BrE AmE verb
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: past participle of attribuere , from ad- 'to' + tribuere ; ⇨ ↑ tribute ]
attribute something to somebody/something phrasal verb
1 . to believe or say that a situation or event is caused by something:
The fall in the number of deaths from heart disease is generally attributed to improvements in diet.
2 . if people in general attribute a particular statement, painting, piece of music etc to someone, they believe that person said it, painted it etc:
a saying usually attributed to Confucius
3 . to believe or say that someone or something has a particular quality:
One should not attribute human motives to animals.
—attribution /ˌætrəˈbjuːʃ ə n, ˌætrɪˈbjuːʃ ə n/ noun [uncountable]
II. at ‧ tri ‧ bute 2 AC /ˈætrəbjuːt, ˈætrɪbjuːt/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
a quality or feature, especially one that is considered to be good or useful:
What attributes should a good manager possess?
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THESAURUS
▪ characteristic something that is typical of someone or something and makes them easy to recognize:
He had several characteristics which made him different to the rest of his family.
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the physical characteristics of the brain
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He studied the special characteristics of adult speech addressed to children.
▪ quality a characteristic of a person, especially a good one such as kindness or intelligence:
Tina has a lot of good qualities.
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I’m not sure about his leadership qualities.
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Obedience is a quality that my father admires.
▪ feature an important or interesting characteristic of something:
it seems to be a feature of modern society that we tend to judge ourselves by our work above everything else.
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A curious feature of the novel is the absence of women.
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The building still has many of its original features.
▪ property [usually plural] technical a characteristic of a substance or object, for example hardness or elasticity, or how it behaves - used especially in scientific contexts:
We examined the physical properties of various metals.
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changes in the electrical properties of cells
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Some plants have healing properties.
▪ attribute formal a good or useful characteristic:
I suspected I probably did not quite possess all the attributes required to succeed at the highest level.
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All living things are able to reproduce their kind, an attribute which no machine possesses..
▪ good/bad points good or bad characteristics – used when someone or something has both good and bad characteristics:
The seller will obviously emphasize the car’s good points.
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Draw up a list of your partner’s good and bad points.