Look up character in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Character(s) may refer to:

Contents

• 1 Art and entertainment
• 2 Mathematics, science and technology
• 3 Symbols
• 4 Other
• 5 See also

Art and entertainment

• Character (arts), an agent in a work of art, including literature, drama, cinema, opera, etc.
• Character (1997 film), based on the novel by Dutch author Ferdinand Bordewijk
• Character (album), by Dark Tranquillity
• Characters (album), by Stevie Wonder
• Character Options, a toy company
• The Characters, a book by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus

Mathematics, science and technology

• Character (biology), the abstraction of an observable physical or biochemical trait of an organism
• Character (mathematics), a type of function used in algebra
• Character structure, a psychological system of personal traits
• Moral character, an evaluation of a particular individual's moral qualities
• Game character (disambiguation), various types of character in a video game or role playing game
  • Player character, as above but who is controlled or whose actions are directly chosen by a player
  • Non-player character, as above but not player-controlled

Symbols

• Character (computing), a unit of information roughly corresponding to a grapheme
• Character (symbol), a sign or symbol
• Chinese character, a written language symbol (sinogram) used in Chinese, Japanese, and other languages

Other

• Character (income tax), a type of income for tax purposes in the USA
• Sacramental character, a Catholic teaching

See also

• All pages beginning with "Character"
• All pages with titles containing "Character"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Noun

character (plural characters)

1. A being involved in the action of a story.
2. A written or printed symbol, or letter
3. A distinguishing feature; characteristic; A complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person or a group.

   A study of the suspect's character and his cast iron alibi ruled him out.

4. A moral strength.

   "You may not like to eat liver," said Calvin's father, "but it builds character."

5. A person with many notable or eccentric features.
6. (mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
7. (computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
8. (informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

   We saw a shady character slinking out of the office with some papers.

Usage notes A comparison of character and reputation: It would be well if character and reputation were used distinctively. In truth, character is what a person is; reputation is what he is supposed to be. Character is in himself, reputation is in the minds of others. Character is injured by temptations, and by wrongdoing; reputation by slanders, and libels. Character endures throughout defamation in every form, but perishes when there is a voluntary transgression; reputation may last through numerous transgressions, but be destroyed by a single, and even an unfounded, accusation or aspersion.