Meaning of the word character

Noun

… this makes everyone believe not only that anyone can be a parent, but also that everyone ought to do it, even those who seem by character or inclination to be ill equipped.


—Anna Quindlen, Newsweek, 27 Apr. 2009


Someone with Alzheimer’s may undergo a regression to a «second childhood,» but aspects of one’s essential character, of personality and personhood, of self, survive …


—Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia, (2007) 2008


«Beat» is old carny slang. According to Beat Movement legend (and it is a movement with a deep inventory of legend), Ginsberg and Kerouac picked it up from a character named Herbert Huncke, a gay street hustler and drug addict from Chicago who began hanging around Times Square in 1939 …


—Louis Menand, New Yorker, 1 Oct. 2007


Slowly, steadily, Och and Chris passed along their knowledge of the characterof various courses, and the way a race evolves tactically.


—Lance Armstrong, It’s Not About the Bike, (2000) 2001


Her character struck the Swede back then as a compound in which you’d find just about everything toxic to desperation and dread. At the core of her he could imagine a nucleus of confidence plaited just as neatly and tightly as her braided hair.


—Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997



the unique character of the town



The building is very simple in character.



Their house has a lot of character.

Verb



formerly charactered as “the dark ages,” that period of history may not have been quite so benighted as once thought

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Recent Examples on the Web



Her character is the governor of Connecticut, and running for the United States Senate.


—Olivia Evans, Women’s Health, 6 Apr. 2023




Putting the character into action demanded everything of Adkins, from his skills to his fitness.


—Brett Williams, Men’s Health, 6 Apr. 2023




But while the plot remains a mystery, the characters give us a bit more insight on where the film could go.


—Erica Gonzales, ELLE, 5 Apr. 2023




More crucially, the good times are grounded in real warmth and compassion toward the young characters.


—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Apr. 2023




Das offers a close reading of Roe’s journal and fleshes out the character of the man within the context of the sociopolitical forces that shaped him.


—Balaji Ravichandran, Washington Post, 5 Apr. 2023




The discipline had at one point involved children’s music featuring Elmo, the popular Sesame Street character.


—Nolan Clay, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2023




Melanie Martinez is bringing the third and final iteration of her signature character Cry Baby — this time, a pink-skinned, four-eyed fairy-like creature that lives between life and death — with her on tour.


—Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 3 Apr. 2023




Zoë Winters, the actor behind Logan Roy’s ambitious assistant and his probable hookup, told Variety that her character’s disastrous audition tape from last night’s episode was inspired by Ingraham and Lahren.


—Vulture, 3 Apr. 2023



For over 25 years, Emmy-award winning directors/producers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have jointly created multi-character documentary narratives that use the personal stories of their protagonists to paint a larger portrait of the human experience.


—Alissa Simon, Variety, 3 Sep. 2021




The best shows and movies are often character dramas at heart; even Westworld was in its first season.


—Wired, 9 July 2022




The success of the single has been remarkable for a multi-character theatrical piece.


—Paul Grein, Billboard, 24 Mar. 2022




There’s a lot of inter-character conflicts that didn’t make the cut.


—Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 21 May 2021




Character witnesses for Storm include a parade of foster puppies the Freeleys have taken in over the last month.


—Sarah Maslin Nir, New York Times, 18 July 2017



This results in a wine with a wild and brambly character rather than an oaky style.


—Mike Desimone And Jeff Jenssen, Robb Report, 30 Mar. 2023




From rides, shows and parades to character interactions and dining experiences, fans of all ages can experience their favorite Disney movies in real life.


—Lexie Sachs, Good Housekeeping, 22 Feb. 2023




But to retain its clout and character the liberal order needs restored leadership and difficult reforms.


—The Economist, 18 June 2020




This is a sport whose major victories are accompanied by gauzy paeans to character.


—Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2022




And Lin told the Raptors Show that the curriculum will include everything from shooting hoops to character development and communication.


—Kimmy Yam, NBC News, 16 June 2022




Well, one chief reason: To dramatize the passing of the superhero torch to sisterly character Yelena Belova — a role that Pugh embraced with athletic ferocity and quick comic aplomb.


—Washington Post, 30 Dec. 2021




And without that depth, Spike’s buddy-cop dynamic with his main foil, Jet, does neither character any favors.


—Cecilia D’anastasio, Wired, 19 Nov. 2021




But the brothers hewed to character in their posts, which could not have been more exemplary and different.


—Guy Martin, Forbes, 12 Apr. 2021


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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘character.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Источник

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”), from χαράσσω (kharássō, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkæɹəktə/
  • (General American)
    • (Mary–marry–merry distinction) IPA(key): /ˈkæɹ(ə)ktɚ/
    • (Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA(key): /ˈkɛɹ(ə)ktɚ/
  • Hyphenation: char‧ac‧ter

Noun[edit]

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

  1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
    • 1695, John Dryden, A Parallel of Poetry and Painting:
      [I]n a tragedy, or epick poem, the hero of the piece must be advanced foremost to the view of the reader or spectator; he must outshine the rest of all the characters; he must appear the prince of them, like the sun in the Copernican system, encompassed with the less noble planets …

    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

      The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.

    • 2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club:

      But Pirates! comes with all the usual Aardman strengths intact, particularly the sense that its characters and creators alike are too good-hearted and sweet to nitpick. The ambition is all in the craft rather than in the storytelling, but it’s hard to say no to the proficiency of that craft, or the mild good cheer behind it.

  2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

    A single locus governing the petal colour character was detected on the linkage group A2.

  3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

    A study of the suspect’s character and his cast iron alibi ruled him out.

  4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

    He has a great deal of character.

    «You may not like to eat liver,» said Calvin’s father, «but it builds character.»

    • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

      Shepard: Are you attracted to other species?
      Kelly: Well, part of my job is predicting the motives and feelings of humans and aliens. Intimacy brings understanding.
      Kelly: And passion is nice wherever you find it. Character matters, not race or gender.

  5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

    Julius Caesar is a great historical character.

    That bloke is such a character.

  7. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.

    • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC:

      It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.

  8. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.

    an inscription in the Runic character

    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

      You know the character to be your brother’s?

  9. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
  10. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
  11. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown.

    We saw a shady character slinking out of the office with some papers.

    That old guy is a real character.

  12. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
  13. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

    in the miserable character of a slave

    in his character as a magistrate

  14. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    a man’s character for truth and veracity

    Her actions give her a bad character.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.
  15. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
  16. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes[edit]

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms[edit]

  • bell character
  • cartoon character
  • Chinese character
  • control character
  • delete character
  • dominant character
  • escape character
  • null character
  • player character
  • round character
  • staple character
  • stock character

Derived terms[edit]

  • ASA character
  • base character
  • big-character poster
  • box-drawing character
  • break character
  • breakout character
  • build character
  • carriage control character
  • character actor
  • character actress
  • character amnesia
  • character assassination
  • character cell
  • character class
  • character density
  • character disorder
  • character encoding
  • character generator
  • character man
  • character map
  • character part
  • character recognition
  • character reference
  • character set
  • character shoe
  • character study
  • character theory
  • character trait
  • character user interface
  • character witness
  • character-based
  • character-building
  • character-forming
  • characterisation / characterization
  • characterise / characterize
  • characteristic
  • characterless
  • Chinese character
  • combining character
  • Dirichlet character
  • ghost character
  • Han character
  • in character
  • lead character
  • main character syndrome
  • non-player character
  • non-printable character
  • optical character recognition
  • original character
  • out of character
  • out-of-character
  • private-use character
  • special character
  • supplementary character
  • title character

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations[edit]

being in a story

  • Arabic: شَخْصِيَّة‎ (ar) f (šaḵṣiyya)
    Egyptian Arabic: شخصية‎ f (šaḵṣeya), كراكتر‎ m (karaktar)
  • Armenian: գործող անձ (hy) (gorcoł anj), կերպար (hy) (kerpar)
  • Asturian: personaxe m
  • Azerbaijani: personaj, qəhrəman (az)
  • Belarusian: персана́ж m (pjersanáž), геро́й m (hjerój), гераі́ня f (hjeraínja), дзе́ючая асо́ба f (dzjéjučaja asóba)
  • Bulgarian: геро́й (bg) m (gerój), де́йстващо лице́ n (déjstvašto licé), персона́ж m (personáž)
  • Catalan: personatge (ca) m
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 人物 (zh) (rénwù), 角色 (zh) (juésè, jiǎosè)
  • Czech: postava (cs) f
  • Danish: figur, rolle, person (da), personage c
  • Dutch: personage (nl) n
  • Esperanto: rolulo, persono (eo)
  • Estonian: karakter, tegelane
  • Finnish: hahmo (fi), henkilöhahmo, henkilö (fi)
  • French: personnage (fr) m
  • Galician: personaxe m or f
  • Georgian: გმირი (gmiri)
  • German: Figur (de) f, Person (de) f
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας (el) m (charaktíras)
  • Hebrew: דְּמוּת‎ (he) f (dmut)
  • Hindi: पात्र (hi) m (pātr)
  • Hungarian: szereplő (hu), alak (hu)
  • Icelandic: persóna (is)
  • Indonesian: tokoh (id)
  • Irish: pearsa f, carachtar m
  • Italian: personaggio (it) m
  • Japanese: 登場人物 (とうじょうじんぶつ, tōjōjinbutsu), キャラクター (ja) (kyarakutā)
  • Kazakh: кейіпкер (keiıpker)
  • Korean: 등장인물(登場人物) (ko) (deungjang’inmul), 캐릭터 (ko) (kaerikteo)
  • Latgalian: īvaigs
  • Latvian: tēls
  • Lithuanian: veikėjas m, veikėja f
  • Macedonian: лик m (lik)
  • Malay: tokoh (ms)
  • Malayalam: കഥാപാത്രം (ml) (kathāpātraṃ)
  • Maori: kiripuaki
  • Norwegian: karakter (no)
  • Old English: hād m
  • Persian: شخصیت‎ (fa) (šaxsiyat), پرسوناژ‎ (fa) (personâž), کاراکتر‎ (fa) (kârâkter)
  • Polish: postać (pl) f
  • Portuguese: personagem (pt) m or f
  • Romanian: personaj (ro) n
  • Russian: персона́ж (ru) m (personáž), геро́й (ru) m (gerój), герои́ня (ru) f (geroínja), де́йствующее лицо́ n (déjstvujuščeje licó)
  • Scots: chairacter
  • Scottish Gaelic: caractar m
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Roman: karakter (sh) m, lik (sh) m
  • Slovak: postava f
  • Spanish: personaje (es) m
  • Swedish: rollfigur (sv) c, karaktär (sv) c
  • Tajik: шахсият (šaxsiyat)
  • Tamil: பாத்திரம் (ta) (pāttiram)
  • Thai: ตัวละคร (th) (dtuua-lá-kɔɔn)
  • Turkish: karakter (tr), kişilik (tr)
  • Ukrainian: персона́ж (uk) m (personáž), геро́й m (herój), герої́ня f (herojínja), дійова́ осо́ба f (dijová osóba)
  • Uzbek: personaj (uz), qahramon (uz)
  • Vietnamese: nhân vật (vi)
  • Walloon: persounaedje (wa) m
  • Welsh: cymeriad (cy)
  • Yiddish: פּערסאָנאַזש‎ m (personazh)

distinguishing feature

  • Armenian: բնութագիր (hy) (bnutʿagir)
  • Azerbaijani: xüsusiyyət (az), özəllik
  • Bulgarian: отличи́тельна черта́ f (otličítelʹna čertá)
  • Catalan: caràcter (ca) m
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 特性 (zh) (tèxìng)
  • Czech: znak (cs) m
  • Danish: karakter (da), træk (da), natur (da)
  • Dutch: karakter (nl) n, persoonlijkheid (nl) f
  • Esperanto: karaktero (eo)
  • Finnish: luonne (fi)
  • French: caractère (fr) m
  • Galician: carácter m
  • German: Charakter (de) m
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας (el) m (charaktíras)
    Ancient: χαρακτήρ m (kharaktḗr)
  • Hebrew: מאפיין מְאַפְיֵן‎ m (me`afyén), תְּכוּנָה‎ (he) f (tkhuná)
  • Indonesian: karakter (id), ciri-ciri
  • Irish: carachtar m, nádúr m
  • Italian: carattere (it) m, caratteristica (it) m
  • Japanese: 特質 (ja) (とくしつ, tokushitsu)
  • Korean: 특질(特質) (ko) (teukjil)
  • Kurdish:
    Central Kurdish: باتەک‎ (ckb) (batek)
  • Latvian: raksturs m
  • Luxembourgish: Charakter m
  • Maori: āhua (mi)
  • Persian: شخصیت‎ (fa) (šaxsiyat), کاراکتر‎ (fa) (kârâkter)
  • Polish: charakter (pl) m
  • Portuguese: caráter (pt) m (Brazil), carácter (pt) m (Portugal)
  • Romanian: caracter (ro) n
  • Russian: хара́ктер (ru) m (xarákter), отличи́тельная черта́ f (otličítelʹnaja čertá)
  • Scottish Gaelic: nàdar m
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Roman: osobina (sh), karakteristika (sh) f
  • Spanish: característica (es) f, carácter (es) m
  • Swedish: karaktär (sv) c
  • Turkish: hususiyet (tr) (dated), özellik (tr)
  • Vietnamese: đặc điểm (vi)

complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person or a group

  • Armenian: խառնվածք (hy) (xaṙnvackʿ), բնավորություն (hy) (bnavorutʿyun)
  • Azerbaijani: qılıq, xasiyyət (az)
  • Belarusian: хара́ктар (be) m (xaráktar), но́раў m (nóraŭ)
  • Catalan: tarannà (ca), caràcter (ca)
  • Finnish: luonteenpiirteet
  • Greek:
    Ancient: ἦθος n (êthos)
  • Hebrew: אופי אֹפִי‎ (he) m (ófi)
  • Hindi: स्वभाव (hi) m (svabhāv)
  • Irish: teacht aniar, spiorad (ga) m, spreacadh m
  • Japanese: 性格 (ja) (せいかく, seikaku)
  • Korean: 성격(性格) (ko) (seonggyeok)
  • Kyrgyz: мүнөз (münöz)
  • Latvian: raksturs m
  • Lithuanian: bū̃das (lt) m, charãkteris m
  • Macedonian: карактер m (karakter)
  • Maori: āhua (mi)
  • Polish: charakter (pl) m, usposobienie (pl) n
  • Russian: хара́ктер (ru) (xarákter), нрав (ru) (nrav)
  • Tagalog: sangkatangian
  • Tamil: குணம் (ta) (kuṇam)
  • Ukrainian: хара́ктер (uk) m (xarákter), вда́ча (uk) f (vdáča), но́ров m (nórov)

moral strength

  • Arabic: خُلْق‎ (ar) m (ḵulq)
  • Armenian: կամք (hy) (kamkʿ), ուժեղ կամք (užeł kamkʿ), հաստատակամություն (hy) (hastatakamutʿyun)
  • Azerbaijani: qılıq
  • Belarusian: хара́ктар (be) m (xaráktar)
  • Bulgarian: хара́ктер (bg) m (harákter)
  • Catalan: caràcter (ca) m
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 品質／品质 (zh) (pǐnzhí)
  • Danish: karakter (da), fasthed, viljestyrke (da)
  • Dutch: karakter (nl) n
  • Finnish: luonne (fi), luonteenlujuus
  • French: caractère (fr)
  • German: Charakter (de) m
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας (el) m (charaktíras)
  • Hebrew: אופי‎ (he) m (ófi)
  • Indonesian: watak (id)
  • Italian: carattere (it) m
  • Japanese: 資質 (ja) (ししつ, shishitsu)
  • Korean: 자질(資質) (ko) (jajil)
  • Luhya: esifa
  • Persian: منش‎ (fa) (maneš), سیرت‎ (fa) (sirat)
  • Polish: charakter (pl) m
  • Portuguese: fortaleza moral f, caráter (pt) m (Brazil), carácter (pt) m (Portugal)
  • Russian: хара́ктер (ru) m (xarákter)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Roman: karakter (sh) m
  • Spanish: carácter (es) m
  • Swahili: sifa (sw)
  • Swedish: karaktär (sv) c
  • Turkish: ahlak (tr), karakter (tr)
  • Ukrainian: хара́ктер (uk) m (xarákter)

notable or eccentric person

  • Armenian: տիպ (hy) (tip)
  • Catalan: personatge (ca) m
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 怪人 (zh) (guàirén) (strange person), 人物 (zh) (rénwù)
  • Danish: personlighed
  • Dutch: persoonlijkheid (nl) f
  • Finnish: persoona (fi), persoonallisuus (fi), tyyppi (fi)
  • French: personnage (fr) m
  • German: Original (de) n
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας (el) m (charaktíras)
  • Hebrew: אִישִׁיּוּת‎ (he) f (ishiyút), טִיפּוּס‎ (he) m (típus)
  • Italian: personaggio (it) m
  • Maori: korokē
  • Portuguese: figura (pt) f, peça (pt) f
  • Russian: ли́чность (ru) f (líčnostʹ) (person), персона́ж (ru) m (personáž)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Roman: lik (sh) m
  • Spanish: personaje (es) m
  • Swedish: figur (sv) c
  • Turkish: orijinal kimse
  • Walloon: persounaedje (wa) m

symbol or letter

  • Arabic: حَرْف‎ (ar) m (ḥarf), رَمْز‎ (ar) m (ramz)
    Egyptian Arabic: حرف‎ m (ḥarf), رمز‎ m (ramz)
  • Armenian: նշան (hy) (nšan)
  • Asturian: caráuter m
  • Belarusian: лі́тара f (lítara), знак (be) m (znak)
  • Bengali: হরফ (bn) (hôrôf)
  • Bulgarian: знак (bg) m (znak), си́мвол (bg) m (símvol)
  • Burmese: အက္ခရာ (my) (akhka.ra)
  • Catalan: caràcter (ca) m
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 符號／符号 (zh) (fúhào), 字 (zh) (zì)
  • Czech: znak (cs) m
  • Danish: tegn (da) n
  • Dutch: teken (nl) n, karakter (nl) n
  • Esperanto: signo (eo)
  • Finnish: kirjain (fi), merkki (fi), kirjoitusmerkki (fi)
  • French: caractère (fr) m
  • Galician: carácter m
  • German: Buchstabe (de) m, Zeichen (de) n, Schriftzeichen (de) n
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας (el) m (charaktíras), γράμμα (el) n (grámma)
    Ancient: χαρακτήρ m (kharaktḗr)
  • Gujarati: અંધારું (andhārũ)
  • Hebrew: אוֹת‎ (he) f (ot), תָּו‎ (he) m (tav)
  • Hindi: अक्षर (hi) m (akṣar)
  • Hungarian: karakter (hu)
  • Irish: carachtar m, litir (ga) f
  • Italian: carattere (it) m
  • Japanese: 記号 (ja) (きごう, kigō), 文字 (ja) (もじ, moji)
  • Kannada: ಅಕ್ಷರ (kn) (akṣara)
  • Korean: 문자(文字) (ko) (munja), 기호(記號) (ko) (giho), 글씨 (ko) (geulssi), 글자 (ko) (geulja)
  • Lao: ອັກສອນ (ʼak sǭn)
  • Macedonian: знак m (znak)
  • Malay: aksara (ms)
  • Maori: pūāhua
  • Norwegian:
    Bokmål: tegn (no) n
    Nynorsk: teikn n
  • Old English: bocstæf m
  • Persian: حرف‎ (fa) (harf), نویسه‎ (fa) (nevisa)
  • Polish: znak (pl) m
  • Portuguese: caractere (pt) m
  • Russian: бу́ква (ru) f (búkva), си́мвол (ru) m (símvol), знак (ru) m (znak), иеро́глиф (ru) m (ijeróglif) (Chinese)
  • Sanskrit: अक्षर (sa) n (akṣara)
  • Scottish Gaelic: litir f
  • Spanish: carácter (es) m
  • Swedish: tecken (sv) n
  • Tajik: ҳарф (tg) (harf)
  • Tamil: எழுத்து (ta) (eḻuttu)
  • Telugu: అక్షరము (te) (akṣaramu)
  • Thai: อักษร (th) (àk-sɔ̌ɔn)
  • Turkish: harf (tr), sembol (tr), simge (tr)
  • Ukrainian: лі́тера (uk) f (lítera), знак m (znak)
  • Vietnamese: chữ (vi), kí tự (vi)

(computing) basic element in a text string

  • Albanian: karakter (sq), germë (sq)
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: 符號／符号 (zh) (fúhào)
  • Czech: znak (cs) m
  • Danish: tegn (da)
  • Dutch: karakter (nl) n
  • Esperanto: signo (eo)
  • Finnish: merkki (fi)
  • French: caractère (fr) m
  • German: Character (de), Zeichen (de) n
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας (el) m (charaktíras)
  • Hebrew: תָּו‎ (he) m (tav)
  • Hungarian: betű (hu), karakter (hu), leütés (hu), betűhely (hu), n (hu)
  • Irish: carachtar m
  • Italian: carattere (it) m
  • Japanese: 記号 (ja) (きごう, kigō)
  • Kazakh: таңба (tañba)
  • Korean: 기호(記號) (ko) (giho)
  • Maori: pūāhua
  • Persian: نویسه‎ (fa) (nevisa)
  • Portuguese: caractere (pt) m, caráter (pt) m
  • Russian: си́мвол (ru) m (símvol), знак (ru) m (znak)
  • Spanish: carácter (es) m
  • Swahili: kibambo class ki/vi
  • Swedish: tecken (sv) n
  • Tamil: எழுத்துரு (ta) (eḻutturu)
  • Thai: อักขระ (th) (àk-kà-rà)
  • Turkish: karakter (tr)

Verb[edit]

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

  1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:

      O Roſalind, theſe Trees ſhall be my Bookes, / And in their barkes my thoughts Ile charracter, / That euery eye, which in this Forreſt lookes, / Shall ſee thy vertue witneſt euery where.

See also[edit]

  • codepoint
  • font
  • glyph
  • letter
  • symbol
  • rune
  • pictogram

Latin[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /kʰaˈrak.teːr/, [kʰäˈräkt̪eːr] or IPA(key): /kʰaˈrak.ter/, [kʰäˈräkt̪ɛr]
  • (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /kaˈrak.ter/, [käˈräkt̪er]

Noun[edit]

charactē̆r m (genitive charactēris); third declension

  1. branding iron
  2. brand (made by a branding iron)
  3. characteristic, mark, character, style
    Synonyms: ingenium, nātūra, habitus, mēns, indolēs

Declension[edit]

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative charactē̆r charactērēs
Genitive charactēris charactērum
Dative charactērī charactēribus
Accusative charactērem charactērēs
Ablative charactēre charactēribus
Vocative charactē̆r charactērēs

Descendants[edit]

  • Hungarian: karakter
  • Galician: caritel; → carácter
  • Irish: carachtar
  • Italian: carattere
  • Old French: caractere
    • → English: character
    • French: caractère
  • Polish: charakter
    • → Russian: хара́ктер (xarákter)
  • Portuguese: caractere, carácter
  • Romanian: caracter
  • Sicilian: caràttiri
  • Spanish: carácter

References[edit]

  • “character”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
  • character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

character m (plural characteres)

  1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and in Brazil until the 1940s).
Источник

Toggle the table of contents

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look up character in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Character or Characters may refer to:
an person, animal, object,
creature.

Arts, entertainment, and media[edit]

  • Character (arts), a fictional being in a narrative

Literature[edit]

  • Character (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
  • Characters (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theophrastus

Music[edit]

  • Characters (John Abercrombie album), 1977
  • Character (Dark Tranquillity album), 2005
  • Character (Julia Kent album), 2013
  • Character (Rachael Sage album), 2020
  • Characters (Stevie Wonder album), 1987

Types of entity[edit]

  • Character (arts), an agent within a work of art, including literature, drama, cinema, opera, etc.
  • Character sketch or character, a literary description of a character type
  • Game character (disambiguation), various types of characters in a video game or role playing game
    • Player character, as above but who is controlled or whose actions are directly chosen by a player
    • Non-player character, as above but not player-controlled, frequently abbreviated as NPC

Other uses in arts, entertainment, and media[edit]

  • Character (film), a 1997 Dutch film based on Bordewijk’s novel
  • Charaktery, a monthly magazine in Poland
  • Netflix Presents: The Characters, an improvised sketch comedy show on Netflix

Sciences[edit]

  • Character (biology), the abstraction of an observable physical or biochemical trait of an organism

Mathematics[edit]

  • Character (mathematics), a homomorphism from a group to a field
  • Characterization (mathematics), the logical equivalency between objects of two different domains.
  • Character theory, the mathematical theory of special kinds of characters associated to group representations
  • Dirichlet character, a type of character in number theory
  • Multiplicative character, a homomorphism from a group to the multiplicative subgroup of a field

Morality and social science[edit]

  • Character education, a US term for values education
  • Character structure, a person’s traits
  • Moral character, an evaluation of a particular individual’s durable moral qualities

Symbols[edit]

  • Character (symbol), a sign or symbol
    • Character (computing), a unit of information roughly corresponding to a grapheme

Other uses[edit]

  • Character (income tax), a type of income for tax purposes in the US
  • Sacramental character, a Catholic teaching
  • Neighbourhood character, the look and feel of a built environment

See also[edit]

  • All pages with titles beginning with Character
  • All pages with titles containing Character
  • Virtual character (disambiguation)

Источник

A quibble about your WiR framing: I think that the two functional definitions of WiR are where a female character is killed and/or depowered, thereby taking her out of the power fantasy sandbox for writers to play with and readers to enjoy, and/or as you pointed out, harming a female to get a reaction from a male _character_. ❋ Unknown (2007)

Diagnosing the U.S. ‘national character‘: Narcissistic Personality Disorder ‘yahooBuzzArticleHeadline =’ Diagnosing the U.S. ‘national character ‘: Narcissistic Personality Disorder’ ‘; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =’ Article: Can a nation have a coherent character? …. ❋ Unknown (2006)

Also with contentus; as, — fortūnā amīcī gaudeō, _I rejoice at the fortune of my friend (i.e. on account of it_); victōriā suā glōriantur, _they exult over their victory_; nātūrā locī cōnfīdēbant, _they trusted in the character of their country_ (lit. _were confident on account of the character_).a. fīdō and cōnfīdō always take the Dative of the person (§ 187, II, a); sometimes the Dative of the thing. ❋ Charles E. Bennett (N/A)

North Carolina is dear to him — on the comfort, ‘character and feelings,’ of her _white_ citizens he sets a high value; he feels too, most deeply for the _character of the Press_ of North Carolina, sees that it is a city set on a hill, and implores his brethren of the editorial corps to ‘set an example’ of courtesy and magnanimity worthy of imitation and praise. ❋ American Anti-Slavery Society (N/A)

But the benevolent character thus deeply laid is the _Christian character_. ❋ Sereno D. Clark (N/A)

Strength of character depends entirely upon the mastery which the will has acquired over the life; and _the formation of character_, as shown in a strong moral will, is the highest aim of education. ❋ Charles Alexander McMurry (1893)

They are forming character and _character tends to permanence_. ❋ Unknown (1892)

An attack on someones character isn’t a logical fallacy when the discussion is * about said person’s character*. ❋ Unknown (2008)

They are amiable, because it chances to be one of the constitutional tendencies of their individual character, left uneffaced by the Fall; and _they an just and upright_, _because they have perhaps no occasion to be otherwise_, _or find it subservient to their interests to maintain such a character_.” — “Occ. Disc.” vol.i. p. 8. ❋ George Eliot (1849)

Yes, because the secondary character is of a different political belief, and Azrael (the main character) believes that the character is a threat to his plan. ❋ Unknown (2008)

The name of the character is a wordplay on the Japanese translation for “cherry boy” — the Japanese slang for a male virgin — and the Sakuranbo television station in the northeastern Japanese city of Yamagata. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Therefore, we prefer to use the term character rather than brand personality in the realm of corporate ressions. ❋ BERND SCHMITT (1997)

The episode is what they’ll be showing writers to help demonstrate the term «character growth.» ❋ The Huffington Post News Editors (2011)

Lon Chaney, Jr. brings an everyman quality to the title character, which isn’t a bad thing, as it allows the audience to identify with him a little more easily, even as the scenario gets wilder. ❋ Kevin EK (2010)

I long as the main character is really interesting they can be anything, I don’t discriminate. ❋ Nalini Singh (2009)

Destiny, the main character is obsessed with coincidences – and for good reason. ❋ Nalini Singh (2009)

[Oh], [Tom], you’re [such a] character. ❋ Awesome (2005)

«…judged not by the color of their skin, but by [the content] of their character.» —Martin [luther] king»
«Our employees are commited to treating you fairly, and are posessed of the highest character.»
[LACKEY]: «The guy can’t be bought. He’s got character»
CRIME BOSS: «We’ll have to wack him then.» ❋ Blueagave (2006)

[Who you] are when you around people means nothing, [but it is] character that determines your [real person]. ❋ [email protected] (2007)

«Mr [Brew] was a popular local character, normally to be found by the war [memorial] in [the high] street». ❋ Battered Osidge (2006)

[Optimist]: «My dog shit on my rug and [pissed on] my wall but its okay because it adds character.»
Optimistic: » My friend had his arm bitten off by [a shark] but its okay because having only one arm adds character.» ❋ Dslice1234 (2012)

1) «Well, they’re [more than] ‘imaginary friends’. They’re characters.
2) «[Meep], [can you send] my characters back? » ❋ Peeves (2004)

Damn, did you see that girl she was all in character, like she’s a [runway model] or something.
I cant even talk all these [fake ass people] in here there [so in] character. ❋ Crillin112 (2010)

“Aye why [aren]’t you friends with [Larissa] anymore?”
“[Ion know] she’s too much of a character for me” ❋ Babyigotme (2019)

“When I feel [sad], I think about [Mario]. He is my [comfort character] and makes me feel happy.” ❋ Squootre (2020)

«My comfort character is [Feng Xin] from [TGCF]!!»
«Thats so swag !!! Mine is [Xie Lian]» ❋ Wangjiluvr (2021)

Источник

Meaning Character

What does Character mean? Here you find 96 meanings of the word Character. You can also add a definition of Character yourself

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A distinguishing feature of a waveform in a seismic event, such as shape, frequency, phase or continuity.

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Character

n. ~ 1. A letter, digit, or other symbol that can be arranged in groups to represent information. — 2. The whole of features, traits, and attributes that distinguish something. — 3. Computing · The c [..]

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Character

One letter or symbol of text. For example, a single standard SMS text message can be a maximum of 160 characters in length.

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Character

mid-14c., carecter, «symbol marked or branded on the body;» mid-15c., «symbol or drawing used in sorcery,» from Old French caratere «feature, character» (13c., Modern Fre [..]

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Character

A term relating to Conservation Areas or Listed Buildings, but also to the appearance of any rural or urban location in terms of its landscape or the layout of streets and open spaces, often giving places their own distinct identity.

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Character

Heritable trait possessed by an organism; characters are usually described in terms of their states, for example: «hair present» vs. «hair absent,» where «hair» is the ch [..]

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Character

Any representation of an individual being presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation. The reader can interpret characters as endowed with moral and di [..]

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Character

1. A symbol such as a letter, number or punctuation mark that canbe arranged to represent higher units of meaning, such as wordsand sentences. 2. The group of bits that represents such a symbol.

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Character

fictional character: an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story); "she is the main character in the novel" engrave or inscribe characters on [..]

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Character

Any symbol (usually alphabetic, numeric, or punctuation) that can be entered into your computer.

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Character

A person in a fictitious story of any medium, eg novel, film, oral tale.

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Character

what a person is like. Someone’s character may be good or bad, honest or dishonest, nice or nasty

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Character

A letter, digit, or other symbol that is used as part of the organization, control, or representation of data. 2. One of the units of an alphabet.

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Character

A single digit, letter of the alphabet, or other symbol. Usually represented inside a computer by one byte.

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Character

An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change). In Shakespeare’s Othello

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Character

an imaginary personage who acts, appears, or is referred to in a literary work. Major or main characters are those that receive most attention, minor characters least. Flat characters are relatively s [..]

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Character

The ‘person’ in a work of fiction or drama. The way the author creates characters in a literary work is called characterization. You may also want to take a look at the entry on character an [..]

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Character

 – a person in a piece of literature

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Character

 a letter, handwriting.

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Character

 to carve or engrave.

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Character

the fictitious or real individual in a story, performed by an actor; also called players. Example: The cast of players in Duck Soup (1933) from Paramount’s press book.

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Character

refers to any letter, punctuation mark, space, or digit used to represent information.

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Character

(In typography) Any letter, figure, punctuation, symbol or space

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Character

A character is either a symbol (letters, numbers, punctuation) or non-printing «control» (e.g., carriage return or soft hyphen).  UTF-8 is the most common character set and includes the gra [..]

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Character

a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature. Characters are extremely important because they are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every character has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in forming the plot of a story or creat [..]

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Character

A component of phenotype (including specific molecular, morphological, behavioral or other features) used by systematists to diagnose species or higher taxa, or to evaluate phylogenetic relationships among different species or higher taxa, or relationships among populations within a species. character displacement

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Character

In computer software, any symbol that requires one byte of storage. This includes all the ASCII and extended ASCII characters, including the space character. In character-based software, everything th [..]

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Character

A type fonts letter, number, symbol or a blank space in typesetting.

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Character

kharekter

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Character

Any mark, sign, or symbol conventionally used in writing or printing, including letters of the alphabet, numerals, punctuation marks, and reference marks. In indexing, the smallest unit used in the ar [..]

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Character

In the Quantitative Coding System, characters are divided into people, animals and mythical beings and they may be either an individual (one person, one animal, etc.) or a group of individuals. Characters are not «coded» if: they are generic (everyone, no one, «dogs» bark, etc.)they are mentioned only as a sign that they are no [..]

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Character

Element of a finite set of different elements, called the character set, defined for representation of information, and usually represented by a letter, number of symbol.

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Character

1. Printable letters or symbols. 2. Most programmers, especially older ones; certainly assembler programmers.

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Character

any feature of an organism or taxonomic group that can be measured, counted or otherwise assessed.

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Character

Any letter, figure, punctuation, symbol or space.

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Character

The person an actor is cast as in a spot.

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Character

In the context of evolution and development, a “character” refers to a more or less discrete trait (feature) of an organism at any level of observation, from the molecular to the visible. Not only [..]

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Character

In the context of credit transactions, character is one of the Three Cs of Credit. It is an indicator of how creditworthy a prospective borrower is likely to be, as determined by the borrower’s handling of past debts and his or her stability in jobs and residences.

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Character

unit of measurement for type including letters, figures, punctuation marks and spaces

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Character

The financial steadiness and stability of a borrower. For example, when reviewing your loan application, a lender may look at how long you’ve lived at your current address or worked at your current [..]

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Character

A trait of creditworthiness indicating a responsible attitude toward paying debts

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Character

A borrower’s reputation for paying bills and debts based on past behavior.

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Character

a single letter of the alphabet, a piece of punctuation or a digit. Also the name of a class that boxes a single character as an Object. Character also contains complicated static methods isLowerCase, [..]

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Character

a letter, numeral, symbol, punctuation mark, or space. See also: ASCII, byte

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Character

(n) an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story)(n) a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something(n) the inherent complex of att [..]

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Character

A letter of the alphabet, number, space or punctuation mark is a character.

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Character

A letter of the alphabet, number, space or punctuation mark is a character.

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Character

N M branded/impressed letter/mark/etc; marking instrument; stamp| character| style

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Character

In character. In harmony with a person’s actions, etc.

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Character

An oddity. One who has a distinctive peculiarity of manner: Sam Weller is a character, so is Pickwick. And Sam Weller’s conduct in the law-court was “in character,” but had [..]

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Character

In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme or a grapheme-like unit or symbol, such as in an alphabet or s [..]

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Character

Any letter, numeral, punctuation mark or other alphanumeric symbol.

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Character

 A character is any letter, number, space, punctuation mark, or symbol that can be typed on a computer.    

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Character

The representation of a person in a dramatic work, such as a film, computer game or radio play.

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Character

Expression, individuality, and general appearance and deportment as considered typical of a breed.

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Character

Any personified entity appearing in a film or a play.

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Character

A person (may be an animal or anthropomorphic object) in a story.

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Character

a person, animal, or spiritual entity that figures importantly in the telling of a story.

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Character

Taste good taste; characteristic of its origin

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Character

Set of features on certain wines that make them unique.

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Character

an attribute of an organism (contrast with Character state).

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Character

In current usage, approximately equivalent to Personality. The sum of the relatively fixed Personality traits and habitual modes of response of an individual.

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Character

A phenotypic outcome (physical characteristic or Disease predisposition) that is determined by many Genes.

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Character

A character is any recognizable trait, feature, or property of an organism. Evolutionary biologists are interested in a character’s heritability. Character polarity is the issue of the evolutiona [..]

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Character

In current usage, approximately equivalent to personality. The sum of the relatively fixed personality traits and habitual modes of response of an individual.

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Character

Expression, individuality, and general appearance and deportment as considered typical of a breed.

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Character

An observable phenotypic feature of the developing, or fully developed organism that is the result of gene action, environmental stress, or a combination of the two.

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Character

    Any heritable attribute of organisms that varies among terminal taxa, and so is useful for phylogenetic reconstruction.

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Character

The combined aromas and flavors of a particular food or ingredient. The character of a food is considered simple when it is one-dimensional, but it is complex when it has many discernible ingredients. Example: Mole sauce has several ingredients that blend to give the sauce a complex character. Granulated sugar has a very simple character.

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Character

In computer science, a character is a display unit of information equivalent to one alphabetic letter or symbol. This relies on the general definition of a character as a single unit of written speech [..]

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Character

Balling:

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Character

a letter, handwriting; to carve or engrave

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Character

A small integer representative of a unit of orthography. Historically, characters were usually stored as fixed-width integers (typically in a byte, or maybe two, depending on the character set), but with the advent of UTF-8, characters are often stored in a variable number of bytes depending on the size of the integer that represents the character. [..]

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Character

A single letter, digit, or symbol. ‘Q’ is a character. ‘4’ is a character. ‘%’ is a character. ‘123’ and ‘yo’ are not characters.

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Character

The smallest individual element of a string. Computers store characters as integers, but Perl lets you operate on them as text. The integer used to represent a particular character is called that char [..]

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Character

, which may in turn be several characters (codepoints

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Character

position (offset

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Character

with the specified ordinal value. (The v

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Character

A single byte that holds a letter or punctuation. See also: ASCII, Byte

80

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Character

featured in a story and used as a medium to communicate/interact with the reader; he or she is given a specific attitude or attitudes, appearance, name, etc. to direct a storyline. Characters can be m [..]

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Character

The persona being played by a player within the context of a game.

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Character

A representation of a participant in the fictional story which exists only within the game; a member of the game’s dramatis personae. While the behavior and actions of characters are often chosen and controlled by one player or the GM, the actions of a character can also be determined by multiple players or by any other means.

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Character

The term character encompasses both minions and heroes. If an ability deals damage to «all characters», it will damage all minions and all heroes.

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Character

The core of a practitioner’s true nature…the substance of what he/she has to offer as a human being…what is left after all the illusions, evasions, and elaborations are stripped away is pivotal to a change practitioner’s effectiveness.

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Character

Everyone in the game world is a character. This term applies to both PCs and NPCs.

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Character

An attribute of individuals within a species for which heritable differences can be defined.

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Character

A distinctive but not necessarily invariable feature exhibited by all individuals of a group and capable of being described or measured; e.g. color, size, performance. A character of a given individual will have a certain phenotype as determined by the individual’s genotype and environment.

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Character

A genetically inherited feature of an organism, e.g. eye colour.

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Character

Term used to indicate both minions and heroes, used on card text to indicate that an effect can be used against minions and/or heroes. Charge

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Character

Character refers to the miniature or figure within the Play Area

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Character

A feature, or trait. Cf. character state.

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Character

A person’s willingness to repay a debt. A character loan is based on the reputation and/or personal credit history of a borrower, rather than collateral. A measure of creditworthiness.

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Character

A character is a symbol, figure, number, and punctuation or control function contained in a data stream. The character may be referred by its decimal value, hexadecimal value, or symbol.

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Character

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Character

A letter, digit, or other symbol that is used as part of the organization, control, or representation of information. [ASCII Code Table]

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Character

Characters are the fictional people that populate the world of whatever book you’re reading. Here are a few of our favorites: Boo Radley from To Kill a MockingbirdThe Monster from Mary Shelley� [..]

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