The phrase "a defining characteristic in" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a key feature or quality that distinguishes something within a particular context or category.
Example: "The ability to adapt to change is a defining characteristic in successful leaders."
Alternatives: "a key feature of" or "a distinguishing trait in".
And yet, despite these advances, race remains a defining characteristic in the nation's housing system.
This alone does not seem to be a defining characteristic in the online world, where 'friends' are easy to come by.
Together with Dilthey, Yorck was the first philosopher to elaborate the specific concept of historicity [Geschichtlichkeit] as a defining characteristic in the ontology of human beings.
But ethnicity is not a defining characteristic in upscale suburbs like Montclair or La Cañada Flintridge.
Unfortunately, the concept of accountability for that process has become illusory within the realm of college athletics and must be a defining characteristic in all efforts of reform.
The water is a defining characteristic, in both its sight and sound.
All of the HWs perceived themselves as front-line workers in a dangerous and contested environment, with perseverance despite these challenges being a defining characteristic particularly in Port Moresby, NCD.
But he put his finger on a defining characteristic of royalty in the United Kingdom as it made the transition to its modern status as the cherry on the very British cake of constitutional monarchy: that of survival by persuading Britons of its utility as much as its regality.
Mustaches are apparently a defining characteristic of Mexicans in the mind of this editorial staff. .
By the late 1990s, the once-exclusive club of high technology became less exclusive, making tech a defining characteristic of economies in almost every region of the country.
The presence of multiple CaM isoforms is a defining characteristic of CaMs in plants.
