» character

Words people most associate with “character”:

  1. actor,
  2. development,
  3. play,
  4. cartoon,
  5. story

[via wordassociation.org]

Noun (9 meanings)

1. an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story).

fictional character, fictitious character, character

Example:
  • “she is the main character in the novel”
character is a type of:
instances of character:
  • Aladdin (noun) - in the Arabian Nights a boy who acquires a magic lamp from which he can summon a genie
  • Ali Baba (noun) - the fictional woodcutter who discovered that `open sesame' opened a cave in the Arabian Nights' Entertainment
  • Argonaut (noun) - (Greek mythology) one of the heroes who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece
  • Arthur, King Arthur (noun) - a legendary king of the Britons (possibly based on a historical figure in the 6th century but the story has been retold too many times to be sure)
  • Babar (noun) - an imaginary elephant that appears in a series of French books for children
  • Beatrice (noun) - the woman who guided Dante through Paradise in the Divine Comedy
  • Beowulf (noun) - the legendary hero of an anonymous Old English epic poem composed in the early 8th century
  • Bluebeard (noun) - (fairytale) a monstrous villain who marries seven women
  • Bond, James Bond (noun) - British secret operative 007 in novels by Ian Fleming
  • Brer Rabbit (noun) - the fictional character of a rabbit who appeared in tales supposedly told by Uncle Remus and first published in 1880
  • Bunyan, Paul Bunyan (noun) - a legendary giant lumberjack of the north woods of the United States and Canada
  • Cheshire cat (noun) - a fictional cat with a broad fixed smile on its face
  • Chicken Little (noun) - a fictional character who was hit on the head with an acorn and believed that the sky was falling
  • Cinderella (noun) - a fictional young girl who is saved from her stepmother and stepsisters by her fairy godmother and a handsome prince
  • Colonel Blimp (noun) - a pompous reactionary cartoon character created by Sir David Low
  • Don Quixote (noun) - the hero of a romance by Cervantes
  • Dracula (noun) - fictional vampire in a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker
  • El Cid (noun) - the hero of a Spanish epic poem from the 12th century
  • Emile (noun) - the boy whose upbringing was described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Fagin (noun) - a villainous Jew in a novel by Charles Dickens
  • Falstaff, Sir John Falstaff (noun) - a dissolute character in Shakespeare's plays
  • Father Brown (noun) - a Catholic priest who was the hero of detective stories by G. K. Chesterton
  • Faust, Faustus (noun) - an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge
  • Frankenstein (noun) - the fictional Swiss scientist who was the protagonist in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  • Frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster (noun) - the monster created by Frankenstein in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (the creator's name is commonly used to refer to his creation)
  • Galahad, Sir Galahad (noun) - (Arthurian legend) the most virtuous knight of the Round Table
  • Gawain, Sir Gawain (noun) - (Arthurian legend) a nephew of Arthur and one of the knights of the Round Table
  • Goofy (noun) - a cartoon character created by Walt Disney
  • Guinevere, Guenevere (noun) - (Arthurian legend) wife of King Arthur
  • Gulliver (noun) - a fictional Englishman who travels to the imaginary land of Lilliput in a satirical novel by Jonathan Swift
  • Hamlet (noun) - the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who hoped to avenge the murder of his father
  • Horatio Hornblower, Captain Horatio Hornblower (noun) - a fictional English admiral during the Napoleonic Wars in novels written by C. S. Forester
  • Houyhnhnm (noun) - one of a race of intelligent horses who ruled the Yahoos in a novel by Jonathan Swift
  • Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn (noun) - a mischievous boy in a novel by Mark Twain
  • Iago (noun) - the villain in William Shakespeare's tragedy who tricked Othello into murdering his wife
  • Inspector Maigret, Commissaire Maigret (noun) - a fictional detective in novels by Georges Simenon
  • Iseult, Isolde (noun) - (Middle Ages) the bride of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with the king's nephew (Tristan) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other
  • John Henry (noun) - hero of American folk tales
  • Kilroy (noun) - a nonexistent person popularized by American servicemen during World War II
  • Lancelot, Sir Lancelot (noun) - (Arthurian legend) one of the knights of the Round Table
  • Lear, King Lear (noun) - the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who was betrayed and mistreated by two of his scheming daughters
  • Lilliputian (noun) - a 6-inch tall inhabitant of Lilliput in a novel by Jonathan Swift
  • Little John (noun) - legendary follower of Robin Hood
  • Little Red Riding Hood (noun) - a girl in a fairy tale who meets a wolf while going to visit her grandmother
  • Marlowe, Philip Marlowe (noun) - tough cynical detective (one of the early detective heroes in American fiction) created by Raymond Chandler
  • Merlin (noun) - (Arthurian legend) the magician who acted as King Arthur's advisor
  • Micawber, Wilkins Micawber (noun) - fictional character created by Charles Dickens
  • Mother Goose (noun) - the imaginary author of a collection of nursery rhymes
  • Mr. Moto (noun) - Japanese sleuth created by John Marquand
  • Othello (noun) - the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who would not trust his wife
  • Pangloss (noun) - an incurable optimist in a satire by Voltaire
  • Pantaloon (noun) - a character in the commedia dell'arte
  • Perry Mason (noun) - fictional detective in novels by Erle Stanley Gardner
  • Peter Pan (noun) - the main character in a play and novel by J. M. Barrie
  • Pied Piper, Pied Piper of Hamelin (noun) - the title character in a German folk tale and in a poem by Robert Browning
  • Pierrot (noun) - a male character in French pantomime
  • Pluto (noun) - a cartoon character created by Walt Disney
  • Raskolnikov, Rodya Raskolnikov (noun) - a fictional character in Dostoevsky's novel `Crime and Punishment'
  • Rip van Winkle (noun) - the title character in a story by Washington Irving about a man who sleeps for 20 years and doesn't recognize the world when he wakens
  • Robin Hood (noun) - legendary English outlaw of the 12th century
  • Robinson Crusoe (noun) - the hero of Daniel Defoe's novel about a shipwrecked English sailor who survives on a small tropical island
  • Rumpelstiltskin (noun) - a dwarf in one of the fairy stories of the brothers Grimm
  • Ruritanian (noun) - an imaginary inhabitant of Ruritania
  • Scaramouch, Scaramouche (noun) - a stock character in commedia dell'arte depicted as a boastful coward
  • Sherlock Holmes, Holmes (noun) - a fictitious detective in stories by A. Conan Doyle
  • Shylock (noun) - a merciless usurer in a play by Shakespeare
  • Simon Legree (noun) - the cruel slave dealer in an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Sinbad the Sailor, Sinbad (noun) - in the Arabian Nights a hero who tells of the fantastic adventures he had in his voyages
  • Snoopy (noun) - a fictional beagle in a comic strip drawn by Charles Schulz
  • Svengali (noun) - the musician in a novel by George du Maurier who controls Trilby's singing hypnotically
  • Tarzan, Tarzan of the Apes (noun) - a man raised by apes who was the hero of a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • Todd, Sweeney Todd (noun) - fictional character in a play by George Pitt
  • Tom Sawyer (noun) - the boy hero of a novel by Mark Twain
  • Trilby (noun) - singer in a novel by George du Maurier who was under the control of the hypnotist Svengali
  • Tristan, Tristram (noun) - (Middle Ages) the nephew of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with his uncle's bride (Iseult) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other
  • Uncle Remus (noun) - the fictional storyteller of tales written in the Black Vernacular and set in the South
  • Uncle Sam (noun) - a personification of the United States government
  • Uncle Tom (noun) - a servile black character in a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Walter Mitty (noun) - fictional character created by James Thurber who daydreams about his adventures and triumphs
  • Yahoo (noun) - one of a race of brutes resembling men but subject to the Houyhnhnms in a novel by Jonathan Swift
  • protagonist, agonist (noun) - the principal character in a work of fiction

2. a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something.

quality, character, lineament

Examples:
  • “each town has a quality all its own”,
  • “the radical character of our demands”
character is a type of:
types of character:
  • texture (noun) - the essential quality of something
character is derivationally related to:

3. the inherent complex of attributes that determines a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions; "education has for its object the formation of character"- Herbert Spencer.

character, fiber, fibre

character is a type of:
  • trait (noun) - a distinguishing feature of your personal nature
types of character:
  • spirit (noun) - a fundamental emotional and activating principle determining one's character
character is a part of:
  • personality (noun) - the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual
parts of character:

4. an actor's portrayal of someone in a play.

character, role, theatrical role, part, persona

Example:
  • “she played the part of Desdemona”
character is a type of:
types of character:
  • bit part, minor role (noun) - a small role
  • heavy (noun) - a serious (or tragic) role in a play
  • hero (noun) - the principal character in a play or movie or novel or poem
  • heroine (noun) - the main good female character in a work of fiction
  • ingenue (noun) - the role of an innocent artless young woman in a play
  • title role, name part (noun) - the role of the character after whom the play is named
  • villain, baddie (noun) - the principal bad character in a film or work of fiction
character is derivationally related to:

5. a person of a specified kind (usually with many eccentricities).

character, eccentric, type, case

Examples:
  • “a real character”,
  • “a strange character”,
  • “a friendly eccentric”,
  • “the capable type”,
  • “a mental case”
character is a type of:
  • adult, grownup (noun) - a fully developed person from maturity onward
character is derivationally related to:

6. good repute.

character

Example:
  • “he is a man of character”
character is a type of:

7. a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability.

character, reference, character reference

Example:
  • “requests for character references are all too often answered evasively”
character is a type of:
character is derivationally related to:

8. a written symbol that is used to represent speech.

character, grapheme, graphic symbol

Example:
  • “the Greek alphabet has 24 characters”
character is a type of:
types of character:
  • ASCII character (noun) - any member of the standard code for representing characters by binary numbers
  • allograph (noun) - a variant form of a grapheme, as `m' or `M' or a handwritten version of that grapheme
  • asterisk, star (noun) - a star-shaped character * used in printing
  • capital, capital letter, uppercase, upper-case letter, majuscule (noun) - one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis
  • check character (noun) - a character that is added to the end of a block of transmitted data and used to check the accuracy of the transmission
  • dagger, obelisk (noun) - a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote
  • double dagger, double obelisk, diesis (noun) - a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote
  • ideogram, ideograph (noun) - a graphic character that indicates the meaning of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it
  • letter, letter of the alphabet, alphabetic character (noun) - the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech
  • ligature (noun) - character consisting of two or more letters combined into one
  • mathematical symbol (noun) - a character that is used to indicates a mathematical relation or operation
  • percent sign, percentage sign (noun) - a sign (`%') used to indicate that the number preceding it should be understood as a proportion multiplied by 100
  • phonetic symbol (noun) - a written character used in phonetic transcription of represent a particular speech sound
  • pictograph (noun) - a graphic character used in picture writing
  • radical (noun) - a character conveying the lexical meaning of a logogram
  • rune, runic letter (noun) - any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages
  • small letter, lowercase, lower-case letter, minuscule (noun) - the characters that were once kept in bottom half of a compositor's type case
  • space, blank (noun) - a blank character used to separate successive words in writing or printing
  • stenograph (noun) - a shorthand character
  • subscript, inferior (noun) - a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character
  • superscript, superior (noun) - a character or symbol set or printed or written above and immediately to one side of another character
  • type (noun) - printed characters
character is derivationally related to:
  • to character (verb) - engrave or inscribe characters on

9. (genetics) an attribute (structural or functional) that is determined by a gene or group of genes.

character

character is a type of:
  • attribute (noun) - an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
types of character:
  • unit character (noun) - (genetics) a character inherited on an all-or-none basis and dependent on the presence of a single gene
Domain of synset - TOPIC:

Verb (1 meaning)

1. engrave or inscribe characters on.

to character

to character is a way to:
to character is derivationally related to: