character
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L331127 on Wikidata ↗noun
- symbol or sign
- person in a narrative work
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkæ.ɹɪk.tə/ / /ˈkæɹ(ə)ktɚ/ / /ˈkɛɹ(ə)ktɚ/
noun
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.
- A being involved in the action of a story; a persona.
“[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.”
- A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; nature; phene.
“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.”
- 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.”
“A man of […] thoroughly subservient character”
- 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."”
- 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.”
- A written or printed symbol, or letter.
“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.”
- Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
“an inscription in the Runic character”
“You know the character to be your brother's?”
- A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
- One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
“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.”
- 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.”
- 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).
- 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”
- 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.”
- A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
- Personal appearance.
verb
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.
- To write (using characters); to describe.
“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.”