different between character vs leader

English

Etymology

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt?/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter

Noun

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

   • A man of […] thoroughly subservient character

4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

6. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     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.

7. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
8. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
9. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
10. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

11. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
12. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

13. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.

14. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
15. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations

Verb

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

See also

• codepoint
• font
• glyph
• letter
• symbol
• rune
• pictogram

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]

Noun

character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension

1. branding iron
2. brand (made by a branding iron)
3. characteristic, mark, character, style

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Hungarian: karakter
• Galician: caritel; ? carácter
• Irish: carachtar
• Italian: carattere
• Old French: caractere
  • ? English: character
  • French: caractère
• Polish: charakter
  • ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
• Portuguese: caractere, carácter
• Sicilian: caràttiri
• Spanish: carácter

References

• character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Noun

character m (plural characteres)

1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

English

Etymology

From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English l?dere (“leader”), equivalent to lead +? -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?li?.d?(?)/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /?lid?/
  • Homophones: liter, litre
• Rhymes: -i?d?(?)
• Homophone: lieder

Noun

leader (plural leaders)

1. any person that leads or directs
   1. one who goes first

   2. one having authority to direct

      Synonyms: chief, chieftain, commander

   3. one who leads a political party or group of elected party members; sometimes used in titles

      Leader of the House of Commons

      Senate Majority Leader

   4. a person or organization that leads in a certain field in terms of excellence, success, etc.

   5. (music) a performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra

      Synonym: conductor

   6. (music, Britain) the first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster
3. an animal that leads
   1. the dominant animal in a pack of animals, such as wolves or lions

      Synonyms: alpha, pack leader

   2. an animal placed in advance of others, especially on a team of horse, oxen, or dogs
   3. Either of the two front horses of a team of four in front of a carriage.

      Antonym: wheeler

4. someone or something that leads or conducts

   (person that leads or conducts): Synonyms: guide, conductor

   1. (botany) a fast-growing terminal shoot of a woody plant
   2. a pipe for conducting rain water from a roof to a cistern or to the ground
   3. (Britain) the first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story
   4. (fishing) a section of line between the main fishing line and the snell of a hook, intended to be more resistant to bites and harder for a fish to detect than the main fishing line
   5. a piece of material at the beginning or end of a reel or roll to allow the material to be threaded or fed onto something, as a reel of film onto a projector or a roll of paper onto a rotary printing press
   6. (marketing) a loss leader or a popular product sold at a normal price
   7. (printing) a type having a dot or short row of dots upon its face
   8. (printing, in the plural) a row of dots, periods, or hyphens, used in tables of contents, etc., to lead the eye across a space to the right word or number
   9. (fishing) a net for leading fish into a pound, weir, etc.
   10. (mining) a branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one
   11. (nautical) a block of hard wood pierced with suitable holes for leading ropes in their proper places
   12. A blank introductory portion of tape or film to assist with loading and playback.
   13. (engineering) the drive wheel in any kind of machinery

       Synonyms: driver, drive wheel

   14. (meteorology) the path taken by electrons from a cloud to ground level, determining the shape of a bolt of lightning

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:leader.

Antonyms

• follower

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

References

• leader at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• dealer, leared, red ale, redeal, relade, relead

French

Alternative forms

• leadeur

Etymology

Borrowed from English leader.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.dœ?/

Noun

leader m (plural leaders)

1. leader

Synonyms

• chef
• dirigeant

Descendants

• Turkish: lider

Further reading

• “leader” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• dealer

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English leader.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li.der/
• Hyphenation: lea?der

Noun

leader m or f (invariable)

1. leader (chief; one in front)

Anagrams

• lederà

Spanish

Noun

leader m or f (plural leaderes)

1. Alternative form of líder