Etimology
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.
noun
character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)
(countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
(countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.
(uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.
(uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.
(countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.
(countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
(countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
(countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
(countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
(countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown.
(countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
(countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.
(countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.
(countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
(countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.
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.
A single locus governing the petal colour character was detected on the linkage group A2.
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.
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.
Julius Caesar is a great historical character.
That bloke is such a character.
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.
an inscription in the Runic character
You know the character to be your brother's?
We saw a shady character slinking out of the office with some papers.
That old guy is a real character.
in the miserable character of a slave
in his character as a magistrate
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.
Related words
hyponyms
bell character
cartoon character
Chinese character
control character
delete character
dominant character
escape character
Hàn character
Hebrew character
main character
main-character syndrome
non-printing character
null character
player character
round character
staple character
stock character
verb
character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)
(obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.
Examples
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.