hallmark
/ˈhɔːlmɑːk/
Meaning
A distinguishing characteristic.
An official marking made by a trusted party, usually an assay office, on items made of precious metals.
To provide or stamp with a hallmark.
A distinguishing characteristic.
To provide or stamp with a hallmark.
A distinguishing characteristic.
Examples
You know what a university is, and a university degree? It is the necessary hallmark of a man who wants to do anything in teaching.
The inference appears to be that there is some subtle connection between immorality and art, as if the handling of the lewd, or the depicting of it, were in some sort the hallmark of the true artist.
A man needs only to be careful—and lucky—to live a long time in the Solomons; but he must also be of the right sort. He must have the hall-mark of the inevitable white man stamped upon his soul.
In everything Brent said and did and wore, in all his movements, gestures, expressions, there was the unmistakable hallmark of the man worth while.
Arsene Wenger's side showed little of the style and fluidity that is their hallmark but this was about digging deep and getting the job done, qualities they demonstrated and that will serve them well as the season reaches its climax.
Word Forms
hallmarks
hallmarking
hallmarked
Etymology
1721. From hall + mark, from Goldsmiths' Hall in London, the site of the assay office, official stamp of purity in gold and silver articles. The general sense of “mark of quality” first recorded 1864. Use as a verb from 1773.