attribute

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.