character means A being involved in the action of a story; a persona. It carries an Arena rating of 1802, earned across 15 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, character ranks #1 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #269 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #387 of 42,747 for Qualifying, #972 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
character is pronounced /ˈkæ.ɹɪk.tə/.
Why “character” is a great word
The inherent and enduring combination of mental and ethical qualities that marks and individualizes a person or group. From the Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, "a stamping tool, an impressed mark, distinctive quality"), via Latin character. Unlike "reputation," which is the portrait others paint, or "personality," which is the engaging facade, character is the private, fundamental geology of the self. It is the father who rises at four to work a second job in silence, the friend who speaks the difficult truth when flattery would be easier, and the quiet choice made when no one is watching; it is the impressed mark that remains when the stamping tool itself has long been forgotten.
Etymology
From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”), from χαράσσω (kharássō, “to engrave”). Displaced native English thew from Old English þēaw (in the plural). Doublet of charakter.
noun
- A being involved in the action of a story; a persona.
- A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; nature; phene.e.g.“A single locus governing the petal colour character was detected on the linkage group A2.”
- A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.e.g.“A study of the suspect's character and his cast iron alibi ruled him out.”
- Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.e.g.“He has a great deal of character.”
- A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.e.g.“Julius Caesar is a great historical character.”
- A written or printed symbol, or letter.e.g.“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.” — 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC:
- Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.e.g.“an inscription in the Runic character”
- 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.e.g.“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.” — 2016 November 14, Rob Reed, “Everything You Need To Know About Emoji”, in Smashing Magazine, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2025:
- A person or individual, especially one who is unknown.e.g.“We saw a shady character slinking out of the office with some papers.”
- 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.e.g.“in the miserable character of a slave”
- The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.e.g.“a man's character for truth and veracity”
- A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
- Personal appearance.
verb
- To write (using characters); to describe.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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