Dictionary Definition
character
Noun
1 an imaginary person represented in a work of
fiction (play or film or story); "she is the main character in the
novel" [syn: fictional
character, fictitious
character]
2 a characteristic property that defines the
apparent individual nature of something; "each town has a quality
all its own"; "the radical character of our demands" [syn: quality, lineament]
3 the inherent complex of attributes that
determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions;
"education has for its object the formation of character"- Herbert
Spencer [syn: fiber,
fibre]
4 an actor's portrayal of someone in a play; "she
played the part of Desdemona" [syn: role, theatrical
role, part, persona]
5 a person of a specified kind (usually with many
eccentricities); "a real character"; "a strange character"; "a
friendly eccentric"; "the capable type"; "a mental case" [syn:
eccentric, type, case]
6 good repute; "he is a man of character"
7 a formal recommendation by a former employer to
a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications
and dependability; "requests for character references are all to
often answered evasively" [syn: reference, character
reference]
8 a written symbol that is used to represent
speech; "the Greek alphabet has 24 characters" [syn: grapheme, graphic
symbol] v : engrave or inscribe characters on
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From Old (and modern) French caractère, from Latin character, from Greek χαρακτήρ ‘marking instrument’, from χαράσσειν ‘engrave’.Pronunciation
/ˈkærəktə/Noun
- A being involved in the action of a story.
- A written or printed symbol, or letter
- A distinguishing feature; characteristic; A complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person or a group.
- A moral strength.
- "You may not like to eat liver," said Calvin's father, "but it builds character."
- A person with many notable or eccentric features.
- A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
- One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character. Synonymous with byte in some environments.
Derived terms
Translations
being in a story
- Chinese: 角色, 角色 (jiǎo sè)
- Czech: postava
- Danish: figur, rolle, person
- Finnish: hahmo, henkilö
- French: personnage
- German: Person , Rolle
- Greek: χαρακτήρας (kharaktiras)
- Hebrew: דמות (dmut)
- Hungarian: szereplő
- Icelandic: persóna
- Italian: personaggio
- Malayalam: കഥാപാത്രം (kathaapaathram)
- Portuguese: personagem and
- Romanian: personaj
- Russian: персонаж (p'ersonáž)
- Serbian: karakter , lik
- Swedish: rollfigur
symbol for a sound or a word
distinguishing feature
- Chinese: 特性, 特性 (tè xìng)
- Czech: znak
- Danish: karakter, træk, natur
- Finnish: luonteenpiirre
- French: caractère
- German: Charakter
- Greek: χαρακτήρας (kharaktiras)
- Hebrew: : מאפיין (me`afyen) , תכונה (tkhuná)
- Italian: carattere, caratteristica
- Japanese: (, tokushitsu)
- Portuguese: caráter
- Russian: характер (χarákt'er)
- Serbian: osobina, karakteristika
- Swedish: karaktär
moral strength
notable or eccentric person
- Chinese: 怪人, 怪人 (guài rén)
- Danish: personlighed
- German: Original
- Greek: προσωπικότητα (prosopikotita)
- Hebrew: אישיות (ishiyút)
- Italian: personaggio
- Portuguese: figura
- Serbian: lik
complex number (mathematics)
basic element in a text string (computing)
Extensive Definition
Character may refer to:
- Character (persona), a social role
- Fictional character, a character who has never existed
- Non-fictional character, usage of a real person in a fictional context
- Moral character
- Sacramental character, a Catholic teaching
- Character structure, personal traits
In symbols:
- Chinese character, a written language symbol
- Character (computing), a unit of information roughly corresponding to a grapheme
- Character (mathematics)
In accounting and mathematics:
- Character (income tax), a type of income for tax purposes in the USA
In entertainment:
- Character (1997 film)
- Character (album), by Dark Tranquillity
- Characters (album), by Stevie Wonder
- Character Options, a toy company
- The Characters, a book by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus
character in German: Charakter
character in Esperanto: Litero
character in Spanish: Carácter
character in French: Caractère
character in Japanese: キャラクター (曖昧さ回避)
character in Dutch: Karakter
character in Polish: Charakter
character in Portuguese: caractere
character in Romanian: Caracter
character in Russian: Характер
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Adamite, Altmann theory,
DNA, De Vries theory,
Galtonian theory, Mendelianism, Mendelism, RNA, Roscius, VIP, Verworn theory, Weismann
theory, Weismannism,
Wiesner theory, abnormal, accent, accent mark, acclaim, actor, actress, advocacy, advocating, advocation, affection, alien, allele, allelomorph, alphabet, alphabetic character,
alphabetize,
animus, antagonist, antihero, aptitude, arbitrary, aroma, arrowhead, assured probity,
attribute, atypical, autolithograph, bad guy,
badge, banner, bar, barnstormer, bastard, bat, be a printmaker, being, bent, bias, big shot, big-timer, bigwig, binary digit, bird, birth, birthmark, bit, bit part, blamelessness, blood, body, body-build, brand, breed, bring to life, bugger, cachet, cameo, cancel, capacity, capitalize, card, carve, case, cast, cat, catalog, cataloging, catch a likeness,
celebrity, certificate
of character, chap,
character actor, character man, character reference, character
sketch, character woman, characteristic, characteristics,
characterization,
characterize,
chart, chief, child actor, chisel, chromatid, chromatin, chromosome, cipher, clan, cleanness, clothing, color, complexion, composition, condition, configuration, constituents, constitution, courage, cove, crackpot, crank, crasis, crease, creature, credential, cribble, crosshatch, cue, cuneiform, customer, custos, cut, decency, delineate, delineation, demotic
character, denomination, depict, depiction, describe, description, designation, details, determinant, determinative, determiner, device, dharma, diagram, diathesis, differentia, differential, digit, dignitary, direct, diseur, diseuse, disposition, distinction, distinctive
feature, dot, dramatizer, draw, duck, duty, earmark, earthling, eccentric, eccentricity, eclat, emblem, eminence, enchase, endowment, engrave, erectness, erratic, estimableness, ethos, eugenics, evocation, evoke, expected, express, expression mark,
factor, fairness, fame, famousness, fanatic, fat part, feather, feature, feeder, feller, fellow, fermata, fiber, figure, fitting, flake, flavor, foil, footing, form, frame, freak, function, furrow, gene, genesiology, genetic code,
genetics, genius, genre, genus, give words to, glory, good character, goodness, grain, grammalogue, graph, grapheme, graphic account,
grave, groove, groundling, gust, guy, habit, hallmark, hand, hatch, head, heavy, hereditability, heredity, heritability, heritage, hermit, hero, heroine, hieratic symbol,
hieroglyph, hieroglyphic, hieroglyphics, high
ideals, high principles, high-mindedness, hiragana, histrio, histrion, hit off, hobo, hold, homo, honesty, honor, honorableness, hue, human, human being, humor, humors, ideogram, ideograph, idiocrasy, idiosyncrasy, ilk, image, imagery, immaculacy, impress, impression, in character, in
keeping, inborn capacity, incise, inclination, index, indicant, indicator, individual, individualism, individuality, ingenue, inheritability, inheritance, initial, inscribe, insignia, integrity, intellect, intelligence, irreproachability,
irreproachableness,
itemization,
jasper, job, joker, justice, justness, juvenile, kana, katakana, key signature,
keynote, kidney, kin, kind, kook, kudos, label, lad, lead, lead role, leading lady,
leading man, leading woman, leaning, letter, letter of introduction,
lexigraphic character, life, ligature, limn, limning, line, lineaments, lines, lithograph, living soul,
logogram, logograph, lone wolf, loner, loony, lot, make, make prints, makeup, man, manner, mannerism, map, mark, marking, matinee idol, matrocliny, maverick, measure, mental set, meshuggenah, metronomic
mark, mettle, mime, mimer, mimic, mind, mind-set, mold, monogram, monologist, moral excellence,
moral strength, morality, mortal, mummer, nabob, name, natural, nature, nobility, nonconformist, normal, nose, notability, notate, notation, note, notoriety, notoriousness, number, numeral, numero, nut, odd fellow, oddball, oddity, odor, office, ogham, one, original, out of character,
outline, outsider, paint, pantomime, pantomimist, pariah, part, particularity, particularization,
party, patrocliny, patronage, pause, peculiar, peculiarity, person, personage, personality, persuasion, pharmacogenetics,
phonetic, phonetic
character, phonetic symbol, photograph, phylum, physique, pictogram, pictograph, pictographic
character, picture,
picturize, piece, place, playactor, player, point, popularity, portrait, portraiture, portray, portrayal, position, predilection, predisposition, preference, presa, principles, print, probity, proclivity, profile, propensity, proper, property, protagonist, protean actor,
province, publicity, pureness, purity, quality, queer duck, queer fish,
queer specimen, quirk,
quiz, race, radical, rank, rara avis, recessive
character, reciter,
reclame, recluse, recognition, recommend, recommendation, rectitude, reference, register, relation, render, rendering, rendition, renown, replication, report, represent, representation, representative, reputability, reputation, repute, resolution, respectability, righteousness, role, rub, rune, savor, schematize, score, scrape, scratch, screwball, sculpture, seal, segno, set, set forth, shape, shorthand, side, sigil, sign, signal, signature, single, singularity, situation, sketch, slant, slur, smack, solitary, somatotype, somebody, someone, sort, soubrette, soul, specialty, species, specification, spirit, spook, stage performer, stage
player, stainlessness, stamp, standing, state, station, status, stipple, stooge, straight man, straight
part, strain, strange
duck, streak, stripe, stroller, strolling player,
stud, style, suchness, suitable, supporting character,
supporting role, sure sign, swell, syllabic, symbol, symbolize, symptom, system, taint, take a rubbing, tang, taste, telltale sign, tellurian, temper, temperament, tempo mark,
tendency, tenor, terran, testimonial, the bubble
reputation, the like of, the likes of, theatrical, thespian, tie, time signature, title role,
token, tone, tool, trace, trace out, trace over,
trait, tramp, transcribe, transliterate, tribe, trick, trouper, turn, turn of mind, twist, type, typical, uncharacteristic,
unexpected, unfitting, unimpeachability,
unimpeachableness,
uniqueness, unspottedness, untypical, uprightness, upstandingness, utility
man, variety, vein, vignette, villain, vinculum, virtue, virtuousness, vivid
description, vogue,
voucher, walk-on,
walking part, warp,
way, wedge, weirdo, word letter, word
painting, worldling,
worthiness, write, writing, written character,
zealot, zombie