character
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
Etymology: Etymology tree
Ancient Greek χαράσσω (kharássō)
Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr
Ancient Greek -τήρ (-tḗr)
Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr)der.
Latin charactērder.
Old French caracterebor.
Middle English caracter
English character
From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”), from χαράσσω (kharássō, “to engrave”). Doublet of charakter.
Inflected forms:
form: characters
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: A being involved in the action of a story; a persona.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: [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 …
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.
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.
gloss: A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; nature; phene.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: A single locus governing the petal colour character was detected on the linkage group A2.
We were not able to ascertain the character of the relationship.
gloss: A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: A study of the suspect's character and his cast iron alibi ruled him out.
A man of […] thoroughly subservient character
Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.
The North Staffordshire was always a railway of character from its formation in 1845, and the Railway Member identified with it from the start was also a character. John Lewis Ricardo was M.P. for Stoke-upon-Trent ^([sic]) from 1841 to 1862.
gloss: Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: He has a great deal of character.
"You may not like to eat liver," said Calvin's father, "but it builds character."
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.
gloss: A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: Julius Caesar is a great historical character.
That bloke is such a character.
The North Staffordshire was always a railway of character from its formation in 1845, and the Railway Member identified with it from the start was also a character. John Lewis Ricardo was M.P. for Stoke-upon-Trent ^([sic]) from 1841 to 1862.
STINGER: Don't screw around with me Maverick. You're a hell of an instinctive pilot. Maybe too good. I'd like to bust your butt but I can't. I got another problem here. I gotta send somebody from this squadron to Miramar. I gotta do something here, I still can't believe it. I gotta give you your dream shot, I'm gonna send you up against the best. You two characters are going to Top Gun.
gloss: A written or printed symbol, or letter.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: 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.
gloss: Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
examples: an inscription in the Runic character
You know the character to be your brother's?
gloss: A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
gloss: One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: We'll start at the beginning, with the basic building blocks not just of emoji, nor even digital communication, but of all written language: characters and character sets.
gloss: A person or individual, especially one who is unknown.
pos: noun
tags: countable
informal
examples: We saw a shady character slinking out of the office with some papers.
That old guy is a real character.
gloss: An assignment of complex numbers to each element of a group, in particular a finite abelian group. More precisely, a group homomorphism into the group of units of a field (usually ℂ).
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: in the miserable character of a slave
in his character as a magistrate
gloss: The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
examples: 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.
Somehow or other, truly or untruly, the Irish have obtained a character for gallantry
gloss: A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
gloss: Personal appearance.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
Derived words: ASA character
base character
bicharacter
big-character poster
biocharacter
box-drawing character
break character
breakout character
build character
carriage control character
character actor
character actress
character amnesia
character arc
character-assassinate
character assassination
character-based
character beat
character-building
character cell
character class
character density
character disorder
character encoding
character-forming
characterful
character generator
character head
characterhood
characterisation
characterization
characterise
characterize
characterism
characterist
characteristic
characterless
characterlike
character man
character map
character neurosis
characternym
characterologist
characterology
characteropathy
character part
character piece
character recognition
character reference
character set
character shoe
character state
character study
character theory
character trait
character user interface
characterwise
character witness
charactery
charactonym
charactron
Chinese character
CJK character
CJKV character
cocharacter
combining character
demicharacter
Dirichlet character
gallow character
get into character
ghost character
Han character
Hebrew character
in character
intelligent character recognition
intercharacter
lead character
main character syndrome
megacharacter
metacharacter
microcharacter
multicharacter
noncharacter
non-player character
non-printable character
optical character recognition
original character
out-of-character
out of character
paragraph character
private-use character
pseudocharacter
replacement character
setaceous Hebrew character
special character
subcharacter
supercharacter
supplementary character
title character
Translations:
lang: Armenian
word: տիպ
roman: tip
lang: Catalan
word: personatge
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 怪人
roman: guàirén
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 人物
roman: rénwù
lang: Danish
word: personlighed
lang: Dutch
word: persoonlijkheid
lang: Finnish
word: persoona
lang: Finnish
word: persoonallisuus
lang: Finnish
word: tyyppi
lang: French
word: personnage
lang: German
word: Original
lang: Greek
word: χαρακτήρας
roman: charaktíras
lang: Hebrew
word: אִישִׁיּוּת
roman: ishiyút
lang: Hebrew
word: טִיפּוּס
roman: típus
lang: Italian
word: personaggio
lang: Māori
word: korokē
lang: Portuguese
word: figura
lang: Portuguese
word: peça
lang: Russian
word: ли́чность
roman: líčnostʹ
lang: Russian
word: персона́ж
roman: personáž
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ли̑к
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: lȋk
lang: Spanish
word: personaje
lang: Swedish
word: figur
lang: Turkish
word: orijinal kimse
lang: Walloon
word: persounaedje