Attributes are qualities, characteristics, or properties that belong to or describe a person, object, or concept. They help define or identify the nature of something. For example, organizational ability is an attribute of a good manager, and eye color is an attribute of a person

. In different contexts, attributes can have specific meanings:

• General use: An attribute is a characteristic or quality that someone or something has, such as charm, intelligence, or sensitivity

• Computing: Attributes are properties or metadata that define characteristics of objects, elements, or files. For instance, in programming, an attribute might specify the color or size of an element, or a file might have a read-only attribute indicating it cannot be modified

• Databases: Attributes describe properties of entities, like a database table's columns. Examples include name, date of birth, or address. Attributes can be simple (atomic), composite (made of subparts), or single-valued

• HTML: Attributes are name/value pairs that provide additional information about elements, such as the href attribute for links or src for images

• Philosophy, grammar, and art: Attributes describe features or elements that characterize objects or figures

In summary, an attribute is a defining feature or property that helps identify or describe an entity, whether it be a person, object, data element, or software component