trait

plural traits

1. biologyAn identifying characteristic, habit or trend.

   inherited traits and acquired traits

   4 more examples

   The number one personality trait I hate is hypocrisy. Why can't you be consistent!?

   The English, of all classes, value themselves on this trait, as distinguishing them from the French, who, in the popular belief, are more polite than true.

   1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Truth

   The positive and constructive aspect of possibility gives the key to understanding the two chief traits of immaturity, dependence and plasticity.

   1916, John Dewey, Democracy and Education

   Turning to our second trait, if you have straight hair, then both of your parents must carry an allele for this trait.

   2003, Robert S. Siegler, Judy S. DeLoache, Nancy Eisenberg, How Children Develop, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 89

   Synonyms: characteristic

2. object-oriented programmingAn uninstantiable collection of methods that provides functionality to a class by using the class’s own interface.

   Traits are somewhat between an interface and a mixin.

   1 more example

   Traits are parametrized on other methods, which must be provided to create a class using the trait. Using a trait-like mechanism to compose large collections of mutually-dependent classes or traits could lead to parameter explosion.

   2006, Nathaniel J. Nystrom, Programming languages for scalable software extension and composition