1. a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person: "he was a letter-of-the-law man, a common trait among coaches"
▪ a genetically determined characteristic:"breeders were installing some trait that allowed the crop to thrive"
Word Originmid 16th century: from French, from Latin tractus ‘drawing, draft’ (see tract1). An early sense was ‘stroke of the pen or pencil in a picture’, giving rise to the sense ‘a particular feature of mind or character’ (mid 18th century).
