different between character vs role

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?l
• IPA^(key): /???l/
• Rhymes: -??l
• Homophone: roll

Etymology 1

From French rôle, from Middle French rolle, from Old French role, from Medieval Latin rotulus. Doublet of roll.

Alternative forms

• rôle

Noun

role (plural roles)

1. A character or part played by a performer or actor.

2. The expected behaviour of an individual in a society.

3. The function or position of something.
4. Designation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and attitudes

5. (grammar) The function of a word in a phrase.
   • 1984, David M. Perlmutter, Carol G. Rosen, Studies in relational grammar: Volume 2

     Examining these verbs one by one, what one finds is that Auxiliary Selection does correlate in the expected way with the two kinds of optional transitivity, confirming that with each predicate, one semantic role has a fixed link with initial 1-hood, another with initial 2-hood.

6. (object-oriented programming) In the Raku programming language, a code element akin to an interface, used for composition of classes without adding to their inheritance chain.

Hyponyms

• subrole

Derived terms

• role-based
• roleless
• roleplay

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

role (plural roles)

1. (historical) An ancient unit of quantity, 72 sheets of parchment.

References

• role on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Orel, Orle, Orël, eorl, lore, orle, relo

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?rol?]
• Rhymes: -ol?
• Hyphenation: ro?le

Etymology 1

From German Rolle, from Old French rolle, role (“parchment scroll, inventory”), from Latin rotula, rotulus (“little wheel”), which is a diminutive of rota (“wheel”).

Noun

role f

1. role, part (of an actor) [19th c.]
2. lines (spoken text of an actor playing a part)
3. role (e. g. of a person in a society)
4. (linguistics) role (function of a constituent in a clause)
5. scroll [19th c.]

Declension

Synonyms

• (of an actor): úloha, part
• (text): part
• (in a society): úloha
• (scroll): svitek

Derived terms

• roli?ka

Related terms

• rolovat
• roláda

Etymology 2

From Proto-Slavic *orl?ja, from*orati.

Noun

role f

1. (obsolete, literary) field (area to grow crops) [14th c.]
2. old unit of field measurement
3. (obsolete, literary) area, domain (of activity)

Declension

Synonyms

• (in agriculture): pole
• (domain): obor, okruh

Derived terms

• roli?ka

Related terms

Anagrams

• orel, orle

Further reading

• role in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• role in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

References

Old French

Noun

role m (oblique plural roles, nominative singular roles, nominative plural role)

1. roll; scroll (rolled up document)

Descendants

• ? English: roll
• French: rôle
  • ? English: role

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (role, supplement)

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r?.l?/

Noun

role

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of rola

Further reading

• role in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Verb

role

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of rolar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of rolar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of rolar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of rolar

Spanish

Verb

role

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of rolar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of rolar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of rolar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of rolar.