Attribute

(1) A characteristic. In a word processing application, an underlined word would be said to have the underline attribute. In database systems, a field can have various attributes. For example, if it contains numeric data, it has the numeric attribute. (2) In database management systems, the term attribute is sometimes used as a synonym for field. (3) In DOS systems, every file has a file attributes that indicate several properties of the file. For example, they indicate whether the file is read-only, whether it needs to be backed up, and whether it is visible or hidden.