Meaning of character in English

character

noun

/ˈkær.ək.tər/ us

/ˈker.ək.tɚ/

character noun (QUALITY)

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B1 [ C or U ]

the particular combination of qualities in someone or something that makes them or it different from others:

Politeness is traditionally part of the British character.

out of character It would be very out of character (= not typical) of her to lie.

in character His recent behaviour is very much in character (= typical).

One of the joys of being a parent is watching the child's character develop.

The idea was to modernize various aspects of the house without changing its essential character.

It's not in his character to be (= he is not usually) jealous.

B2 [ U ]

qualities that are interesting and unusual:

of character a hotel of character

I'd prefer an old place with a bit of character.

Old books are said to give a room character.

As people grow older, their faces acquire more character.

[ U ]

the quality of being determined and able to deal with difficult situations:

strength of character She has such strength of character.

More examplesFewer examples

The area where I grew up has been all modernized and has lost all its old character.
It's very tasteful, their house, but I can't help thinking it lacks a little character.
Closing the factory would irrevocably alter the character of the local community for the worse.
There's a marked contrast between his character and hers.
The way he drives says a lot about his character.
The pain is often described as burning in character.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Mind and personality

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Conditions and characteristics

Exceptional qualities, things and people

Excitement, interest, energy and enthusiasm

Strength of will and determination

character noun (IN A STORY)

B1 [ C ]

a person represented in a film, play, or story:

The film revolves around three main characters.

She had Mickey Mouse or some other cartoon/Disney character on her sweater.

character actor He made his name as a character actor (= an actor who plays unusual and often humorous people).

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The Incredible Hulk is a character in a comic who turns from a scientist into a two-metre tall monster.
Michelle is the central female character in ITV's latest comedy series.
In the movie she's depicted as a very cold and calculating character.
The characters in the book are just stereotypes.
Charles Schulz created the characters "Snoopy" and "Charlie Brown".

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Literature

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character noun (PERSON)

C2 [ C ]

a person, especially when you are describing a particular quality that they have:

She's a curious character - I don't really know what to think of her.

There were one or two strange-looking characters hanging around the bar.

C1 [ C ] informal

someone whose behaviour is different from most people's, especially in a way that is interesting or funny:

Ted's quite a character - he's 70 now and still riding that motorbike.

More examplesFewer examples

She's a rather odd character.
There were some dodgy looking characters hanging around.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

People in general

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Exceptional qualities, things and people

character noun (MARK)

C1 [ C ]

a letter, number, or other mark or sign used in writing or printing, or the space one of these takes:

string of characters (= a line of marks)

Chinese character The address was written in Chinese characters (= systems of writing).

Japanese character The sign was written in Japanese characters (= systems of writing).

The computer screen on this laptop is 66 characters (= spaces) wide.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Lettering & alphabets

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(Definition of character from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

character | American Dictionary

character

noun

/ˈkær·ək·tər/

character noun (QUALITY)

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[ C/U ]

the particular combination of things about a person or place, esp. things you cannot see, that make that person or place different from others:

[ C ] The idea was to modernize the house without changing its homey character.

[ C/U ]

Character is often used in a positive way to mean qualities that are interesting and unusual:

[ U ] It’s a theater with a lot of character.

character noun (PERSON)

[ C ] literature

a person represented in a movie, play, or story:

The story revolves around three main characters.

[ C ]

A character is also a person, esp. with reference to a particular quality that the person has:

There were one or two suspicious-looking characters hanging around.

character noun (MARK)

[ C ] grammar

a letter, number, or other mark or sign used in writing or printing, or the space one of these takes:

This computer screen is 66 characters wide.

(Definition of character from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

character | Business English

character

noun [ C ]

/ˈkærəktər/ us

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a letter, number, or other symbol used in writing, especially in printed text or on a computer:

Click on the "word count" tool to find out how many lines, words, or characters are in your document.

(Definition of character from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of character

character

Fourth, the experience strikes us as ineffable, that is, though you experience it as possessing various qualities, the exact qualitative character escapes description in words.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It was not our aim to deny that there is experience, nor to deny that experience has a qualitative character.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The qualitative character of men and women's friendships was often distinctive, although mediated by social class and area differences.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The character of these boundary conditions is that of two coupled second-order ordinary differential equations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note that this phenomenon has a purely inertial character; viscous forces cannot prevent it, although these forces guarantee the space regularity of the solution.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It advocates a new, more (patient) protective model which should generate confidence in the ethical character of contemporary innovatory practices.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

For each of the six trials, children were asked to predict the returning character's false belief.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

While the character was absent, another character removed the object from the location, and replaced it with a different object.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They were explicitly told that some of the characters have features that could help them choose and some did not.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Individual scientists may even be supposed to have a "character," analogous to the characters studied by psychologists.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Symbolic talk involves talk about play characters, their imagined actions, speech, and states, and characteristics of the imagined story setting.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Here, a story-completion approach was also used around attachment and emotion themes, and children were asked to complete the stories and describe the characters' feelings.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As noted earlier, defining neighborhoods or examining neighborhood character is not as straightforward a task as it may seem.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The material within the book is varied in character, ranging from valuable scholarly analysis to sermons, and to that which tends towards the hagiographical.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The exclusion of the uninformative characters does not change the resulting most parsimonious trees.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with character

character

These are words often used in combination with character.

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alphanumeric character

Labels are typically alphanumeric characters attached to a shape.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

animated character

The details of the posture an animated character must take in each key-frame is resolved with a process called inverse kinematics.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

central character

The basic conflict and resolution are generally simple: an obstacle comes between the central character and desired object.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with character

What is the pronunciation of character?

Translations of character

in Chinese (Traditional)

品質, 性格，個性, 特徵…

Meaning of character in English

character noun (QUALITY)

character noun (IN A STORY)

character noun (PERSON)

character noun (MARK)

character | American Dictionary

character noun (QUALITY)

character noun (PERSON)

character noun (MARK)

character | Business English

Examples of character

Collocations with character

character

Translations of character

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