,| 1. | a distinguishing characteristic or quality, esp. of one's personal nature: bad traits of character. |
| 2. | a pen or pencil stroke. |
| 3. | a stroke, touch, or strain, as of some quality: a trait of pathos; a trait of ready wit. |
trait (trāt) n.
[Middle English, shot, from Old French, something drawn, shot, from Latin tractus, a drawing out, line; see tract1.] |
trait (trāt)
n.
A characteristic, especially one that distinguishes an individual from others.
trait
in biology, any observable feature, or trait, of an organism, whether acquired or inherited. An acquired character is a response to the environment; an inherited character is produced by genes transmitted from parent to offspring (their expressions are often modified by environmental conditions). One gene may affect many characters; one character may be controlled by many genes. A character controlled by only a few genes is known as an oligogenic, discontinuous, or qualitative character; a character controlled by many genes is termed polygenic, continuous, or quantitative. A genetically controlled character may be termed dominant when its controlling genes are powerful enough to mask the effect of other genes (alleles) that control an alternative character, termed recessive
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