attribute

An attribute is a property, quality, or characteristic of something that can be described or measured. Attributes help distinguish entities and can be qualitative or quantitative, intrinsic or relational. In ordinary speech they are often expressed as adjectives or phrases attached to nouns.

In linguistics, attributive elements describe nouns directly, as in red apple. Some adjectives appear in attributive position before the noun, while others are predicative after a linking verb, as in the apple is red.

In computer science and information systems, an attribute refers to a data field or property of an object or entity. In databases, attributes correspond to columns in a relation. In programming, objects have attributes (also called properties or fields) that store values. In HTML and XML, attributes provide additional information about elements, such as class="button" or href="https://example.com".

In philosophy and ontology, attributes are properties ascribed to entities, which may be essential or contingent. Discussions may distinguish attributes from relations or events and consider how attributes relate to identity and change.

Examples include color, size, and weight; in a database, customer_id and balance are attributes of a customer entity. The concept of attribute is central across disciplines for describing and organizing information.