signature

Etymology

From French signature, from Latin signatura, future active periphrastic of verb signare, "to sign", from signum, "sign", + -tura, feminine of -turus, future active periphrastic suffix.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnətʃə/, /ˈsɪɡnɪtʃə/
• (US) enPR: ′sĭgnəchər, ′sĭgnĭchər, IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɡnətʃɚ/, /ˈsɪɡnɪtʃɚ/

Adjective

signature (not generally comparable, comparative more signature, superlative most signature)

1. Distinctive, characteristic, indicative of identity.

   Rabbit in mustard sauce is my signature dish.

   The signature route of the airline is its daily flight between Buenos Aires and Madrid.

   • 2001, Lawrence J. Vale, Sam Bass Warner, Imaging the city: continuing struggles and new directions,

     Consider Las Fallas of Valencia, Spain, arguably the most signature of signature ephemera.

   • 2005, Paul Duchscherer, Linda Svendsen, Beyond the bungalow: grand homes in the arts & crafts tradition,

     Considered the most signature effect of the Tudor Revival style, half-timbering derived its distinctive […] .

   • 2005, Brett Dawson, Tales from the 2004-05 Fighting Illini,

     But it was perhaps the most signature shot Williams ever made in an Illinois uniform, a bullying basket in which he used his power to pound Stoudamire, […] .

   • 2005, CBS News website, Paul Winchell Dead At Age 82,

     He credited his wife, who is British, for giving him the inspiration for Tigger’s signature phrase: TTFN. TA-TA for now.

Noun

signature (plural signatures)

1. A person’s name, written by that person, used to signify approval of accompanying material, such as a legal contract.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, OCLC 16832619:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there. For his signature, however, that was different.

2. The act of signing one's name.
3. (medicine) The part of a doctor’s prescription containing directions for the patient.
4. (music) Signs on the stave indicating key and tempo, composed of the key signature and the time signature.
5. (printing) A group of four (or a multiple of four) pages printed such that, when folded, they become a section of a book.
6. (computing) A pattern used for matching the identity of a virus, the parameter types of a method, etc.
7. (cryptography) Data attached to a message that guarantees that the message originated from its claimed source.
8. (figuratively) A mark or sign of implication.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Richard Bentley (1662-1742)

     the natural and indelible signature of God, stamped on the human soul

   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme, Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN,

     A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.

9. (mathematics) A tuple specifying the sign of coefficients in any diagonal form of a quadratic form.
10. (medicine, obsolete) A resemblance between the external character of a disease and those of some physical agent, for instance, that existing between the red skin of scarlet fever and a red cloth; supposed to indicate this agent in the treatment of the disease.

Anagrams

• antisurge, gauntries, sautering

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.ɲa.tyʁ/

• Audio (France)

  (file)

Noun

signature f (plural signatures)

1. signature (a person's name written in their own handwriting)

   désavouer sa signature

2. the act of signing

   Le décret est à la signature.

Further reading

• “signature” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Participle

signātūre

1. vocative masculine singular of signātūrus