different between character vs mold

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

Alternative forms

• mould (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling)

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?ld, m?ld
• (UK) IPA^(key): /m??ld/, /m??ld/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mo?ld/
• Rhymes: -??ld

Etymology 1

Via Middle English and Old French, from Latin modulus, from Latin modus. Doublet of module and model.

Noun

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds) (American spelling)

1. A hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance.
2. A frame or model around or on which something is formed or shaped.
3. Something that is made in or shaped on a mold.
4. The shape or pattern of a mold.
5. General shape or form.
   • 1711, Alexander Pope, "The Temple of Fame", in The Works of Alexander Pope: New Ed. Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials, Collected in Part by John Wilson Croker. With Introd. and Notes by Whitwell Elwin, Volume 1, J.Murray, p.206

     Crowned with an architrave of antique mould.

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

6. Distinctive character or type.

7. A fixed or restrictive pattern or form.

8. (architecture) A group of moldings.

9. (anatomy) A fontanelle.

Derived terms

• break the mold
• (archaeology): post mold
• (paleontology): fossil mold

Translations

Verb

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To shape in or on a mold; to form into a particular shape; to give shape to.
   • 1978, Job 10:8-9, Old Testament, New International Version:

     Your hands shaped me and made me?… Remember that you molded me like clay.

2. (transitive) To guide or determine the growth or development of; influence
   • 1963. Haile Selassie (translated)

     It is you who must mold the minds of your students that they may be wise, farsighted, intelligent, profound in their thinking, devoted to their country and government and fruitful in their work. It is you who must sense as the example.

3. (transitive) To fit closely by following the contours of.
4. (transitive) To make a mold of or from (molten metal, for example) before casting.
5. (transitive) To ornament with moldings.
6. (intransitive) To be shaped in or as if in a mold.

   These shoes gradually molded to my feet.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mowlde, noun use and alteration of mowled, past participle of moulen, mawlen (“to grow moldy”), from Old Norse mygla (compare dialectal Danish mugle), from Proto-Germanic *mugl?n?, diminutive and denominative of *mukiz 'soft substance' (compare Old Norse myki, mykr (“cow dung”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mewk- (“slick, soft”). More at muck and meek.

Noun

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds) (American spelling)

2. A natural substance in the form of a woolly or furry growth of tiny fungi that appears when organic material lies for a long time exposed to (usually warm and moist) air.

Derived terms

• moldy, mouldy
• moulder

Translations

See also

• mildew

Verb

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To cause to become moldy; to cause mold to grow upon.
2. (intransitive) To become moldy; to be covered or filled, in whole or in part, with a mold.

Etymology 3

From Old English molde, from Proto-Germanic *muld? ‘dirt, soil’ (compare Old Frisian molde, Middle Dutch moude, Dutch moude, obsolete German Molte, Norwegian Bokmål mold), from Proto-Indo-European *ml?-t? (compare Old Irish moll ‘bran’, Lithuanian mìltai ‘flour’), from *mel- (compare English meal). More at meal.

Noun

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

1. Loose friable soil, rich in humus and fit for planting.
2. (Britain, dialectal, chiefly plural) Earth, ground.

Alternative forms

• mool

Derived terms

• leaf mold
• vegetable mold

Translations

Verb

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded) (American spelling)

1. To cover with mold or soil.

Anagrams

• LMDO

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muld? ‘dirt, soil’, from Proto-Indo-European *ml?-t?, from *mel-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [m?lt]

Noun

mold f (genitive singular moldar, uncountable)

1. (agriculture) earth, humus soil, humus layer
   • tá myndaði Harrin Guð mannin av mold jarðar

     And the Lord God formed man of the soil of the ground (Genesis 2,7)

Declension

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muld? (“dirt, soil”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?lt/
• Rhymes: -?lt

Noun

mold f (genitive singular moldar, nominative plural moldir)

1. dirt, mould, humus, ground, earth

Declension

Middle English

Noun

mold

1. Alternative form of molle (“mole”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse mold (“earth, dirt, soil”), from Proto-Germanic *muld? (“mould, soil, dirt”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh?- (“to grind, crush”), from *mel- (“to rub”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /m?l?/

Noun

mold f or m (definite singular molda or molden, uncountable)

1. humus, earth, soil, topsoil

Alternative forms

• muld

References

• “mold” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “mold” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muld?.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /m?l?/

Noun

mold f (definite singular molda, uncountable)

1. humus, earth, soil, topsoil

References

• “mold” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *muld? (“dirt, soil”). Cognate with Old English molde (English mold), Old High German molta, Gothic ???????????????????? (mulda).

Pronunciation

• (12th century Icelandic) IPA^(key): /mõld/

Noun

mold f (genitive moldar, plural moldir)

1. earth, dirt, soil
   • V?luspá, verse 2

Declension

Descendants

References

• mold in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press