A biocharacteristic is a descriptive quality that conveys the essential metabolic nature of a disorder, a person's constitution, or the metabolic effect of food, herb, exercise, lifestyle habit, or any relevant feature within the field of medicine.

The Ayurvedic gunas (20 pairs of opposites, including Heavy-Light, Sharp-Dull, and so forth) offer a canonical illustration of biocharacteristics. Similarly, Greek Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) also utilize biocharacteristics. For example, Greek Medicine includes biocharacteristics such as Hot, Cold, Dry, Wet, Cooked, and Raw.

Biocharacteristics also encompass tastes, elemental qualities, and other descriptive terms that characterize the medicinal properties or nature of various substances and conditions in a general, approachable manner.

Certain biocharacteristics function effectively as groups, encapsulating multiple related biocharacteristics within a single term. The three Doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) exemplify this. For instance, the biocharacteristic "Vata" implicitly includes the qualities Dry, Light, Cold, Rough, Subtle, and Mobile. Thus, using "Vata" succinctly implies all these attributes without individually listing them.

For further details, refer to the List of Biocharacteristics and How Biocharacteristics Change in a Person (Mutagens, Doshas, Temperaments).