In order to solve emitter recognition problems in a practical reconnaissance environment, attribute mathematics is introduced. The basic concepts and theory of attribute set and attribute measure are described in detail. A new attribute recognition method based on attribute measure is presented in this paper. Application example is given, which demonstrates this new method is accurate and effective. Moreover, computer simulation for recognizing the emitter purpose is selected, and compared with classical statistical pattern recognition through simulation. The excellent experimental results demonstrate that this is a brand-new attribute recognition method as compared to existing statistical pattern recognition techniques.