signature

[sig-nuh-cher, -choo r] /ˈsɪg nə tʃər, -ˌtʃʊər/
noun
1.
a person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.
2.
the act of signing a document.
3.
Music. a sign or set of signs at the beginning of a staff to indicate the key or the time of a piece.
4.
Radio. a song, musical arrangement, sound effect, etc., used as a theme identifying a program.
5.
any unique, distinguishing aspect, feature, or mark.
6.
Medicine/Medical. that part of a written prescription that specifies directions for use.
7.
Biology, Medicine/Medical. a distinctive characteristic or set of characteristics by which a biological structure or medical condition is recognized.
8.
Also called section. Bookbinding. a printed sheet folded to page size for binding together, with other such sheets, to form a book, magazine, etc.
9.
Printing.
  1. a letter or other symbol generally placed by the printer at the foot of the first page of every sheet to guide the binder in folding the sheets and in gathering them in sequence.
  2. a sheet so marked.
10.
Chemistry, Physics. a characteristic trace or sign that indicates the presence of a substance or the occurrence of a physical process or event:
The satellite recorded a spectrum that is the signature of a nuclear explosion.
adjective
11.
serving to identify or distinguish a person, group, etc.:
a signature tune.
Origin
1525-35; < Medieval Latin signātūra a signing, equivalent to Latin signāt(us) past participle of signāre to mark (see sign, -ate1) + -ūra -ure
Related forms
signatureless, adjective
Examples from the web for signature
  • Everyone knows someone with an e-mail signature blames their typos on their phone, of course.
  • These bits are easily detected, and provide a molecular signature by which one prion strain can be compared to another.
  • The incorporation of many heavy isotopes and the presence of rare polyols is a signature of extraterrestrial materials.
  • The indirect signature of hunters can also be seen in the ecological record.
  • Moreover, each vent they tested had a signature sound, potentially providing deep-sea creatures with a sonic road map in the dark.
  • Here, he developed many of the items considered signature representations of the company.
  • Our jobs can simply disappear with the crisp signature of a board member or the ringing gavel of a state legislature.
  • The purported suicide note, written in capital letters, bore no date or signature and got his father's name wrong.
  • Search by date and state to find signature events and more on this extensive listings calendar.
  • The condition of having multiple personalities was incorrectly identified as a signature of schizophrenia.
British Dictionary definitions for signature

signature

/ˈsɪɡnɪtʃə/
noun
1.
the name of a person or a mark or sign representing his name, marked by himself or by an authorized deputy
2.
the act of signing one's name
3.
  1. a distinctive mark, characteristic, etc, that identifies a person or thing
  2. (as modifier): a signature fragrance
4.
(music) See key signature, time signature
5.
(US) the part of a medical prescription that instructs a patient how frequently and in what amounts he should take a drug or agent Abbreviation Sig, S
6.
(printing)
  1. a sheet of paper printed with several pages that upon folding will become a section or sections of a book
  2. such a sheet so folded
  3. a mark, esp a letter, printed on the first page of a signature
Word Origin
C16: from Old French, from Medieval Latin signātura, from Latin signāre to sign
Word Origin and History for signature
n.

1530s, a kind of document in Scottish law, from Middle French signature (16c.) or directly from Medieval Latin signatura "signature, a rescript," in classical Latin "the matrix of a seal," from signatus, past participle of signare "to mark with a stamp, sign" (see sign (v.)).

Meaning "one's own name written in one's own hand" is from 1570s, replacing sign-manual (early 15c.) in this sense. Musical sense of "signs placed it the beginning of a staff to indicate the key and rhythm" is from 1806. Meaning "a distinguishing mark of any kind" is from 1620s.

signature in Medicine

signature sig·na·ture (sĭg'nə-chər)
n.
The part of a physician's prescription containing directions to the patient.

signature in Technology

1. A set of function symbols with arities.
2. (Or sig) A few lines of information about the sender of an electronic mail message or news posting. Most Unix mail and news software will automagically append a signature from a file called .signature in the user's home directory to outgoing mail and news.
A signature should give your real name and your e-mail address since, though these appear in the headers of your messages, they may be munged by intervening software. It is currently (1994) hip to include the URL of your home page on the World-Wide Web in your sig.
The composition of one's sig can be quite an art form, including an ASCII logo or one's choice of witty sayings (see sig quote, fool file). However, large sigs are a waste of bandwidth, and it has been observed that the size of one's sig block is usually inversely proportional to one's prestige on the net.
See also doubled sig, sig virus.
2. A concept very similar to abstract base classes except that they have their own hierarchy and can be applied to compiled classes. Signatures provide a means of separating subtyping and inheritance. They are implemented in C++ as patches to GCC 2.5.2 by Gerald Baumgartner .
(ftp://ftp.cs.purdue.edu/pub/gb/).
(2001-01-05)