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Character vs Spirit - What's the difference?

character | spirit | Related terms |

In obsolete terms the difference between character and spirit

is that character is to write (using characters); To describe while spirit is a rough breathing; an aspirate, such as the letter h; also, a mark denoting aspiration.

As a proper noun Spirit is

{{altname|Holy Spirit}}.

character

English

Noun

  • A being involved in the action of a story.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 26, author=Tasha Robinson, work=The Onion AV Club
    • , title= Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits , passage=But Pirates! comes with all the usual Aardman strengths intact, particularly the sense that its characters and creators alike are too good-hearted and sweet to nitpick. The ambition is all in the craft rather than in the storytelling, but it’s hard to say no to the proficiency of that craft, or the mild good cheer behind it. }}
  • A distinguishing feature; characteristic.
  • A complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person or a group.
  • * Motley
    • a man of thoroughly subservient character
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}
  • Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.
    • He has a great deal of character .
  • A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.
    • Julius Caesar is a great historical character .
  • A written or printed symbol, or letter.
  • * Holder
    • 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.
  • Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
    • an inscription in the Runic character
  • * Shakespeare
    • You know the character to be your brother's?
  • (computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
  • (informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.
  • (mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
  • Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.
    • in the miserable character of a slave
    in his character as a magistrate
  • (dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.
    • a man's character for truth and veracity
    Her actions give her a bad character .
  • * Addison
    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.
  • (dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to his/her behaviour, competence, etc.

    • 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.

    Derived terms

    * cartoon character * character actor * character assassination * character class * character encoding * characterise / characterize * characterisation / characterization * characteristic * characterless * character recognition * character set * character theory * Chinese character * control character * dominant character * escape character * fictional character * in character * null character * out of character * player character * round character * staple character * stock character * whitespace character (character)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To write (using characters); To describe

    • See also

    * codepoint * font * glyph * letter * symbol * rune * pictogram

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    spirit

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The undying essence of a human; the soul.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=[…] St.?Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit .}}
  • * 1967 , MacCormack, Woman Times Seven
    • a triumph of the spirit over the flesh.
  • A supernatural being, often but not exclusively without physical form; ghost, fairy, angel.
    • A wandering spirit haunts the island.
  • * John Locke
    • Whilst young, preserve his tender mind from all impressions of spirits and goblins in the dark.
  • Enthusiasm.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Phil Dawkes, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Sunderland 2-2 West Brom , passage=The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.}}
  • The manner or style of something.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • * Alexander Pope
    • A perfect judge will read each work of wit / With the same spirit that its author writ.
  • (usually, in the plural) A volatile liquid, such as alcohol. The plural form spirits is a generic term for distilled alcoholic beverages.
  • Energy; ardour.
  • * Fuller
    • "Write it then, quickly," replied Bede; and summoning all his spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle going out, he indited it, and expired.
  • One who is vivacious or lively; one who evinces great activity or peculiar characteristics of mind or temper.
    • a ruling spirit'''; a schismatic '''spirit
  • * Dryden
    • Such spirits as he desired to please, such would I choose for my judges.
  • Temper or disposition of mind; mental condition or disposition; intellectual or moral state; often in the plural.
    • to be cheerful, or in good spirits'''; to be down-hearted, or in bad '''spirits
  • * South
    • God has made a spirit' of building succeed a ' spirit of pulling down.
  • (obsolete) Air set in motion by breathing; breath; hence, sometimes, life itself.
  • * Spenser
    • For, else he sure had left not one alive, / But all, in his Revenge, of Spirit would deprive.
  • * Spenser
    • The mild air, with season moderate, / Gently attempered, and disposed so well, / That still it breathed forth sweet spirit .
  • (obsolete) A rough breathing; an aspirate, such as the letter h ; also, a mark denoting aspiration.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • Be it a letter or spirit , we have great use for it.
  • Intent; real meaning; opposed to the letter, or formal statement.
    • the spirit of an enterprise, or of a document
  • (alchemy, obsolete) Any of the four substances: sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic (or, according to some, orpiment).
  • * Chaucer
    • the four spirits and the bodies seven
  • (dyeing) stannic chloride

    • Derived terms

    (Derived terms) * community spirit * free spirit * Holy Spirit * in good spirits * in spirit (adverb) * in the spirit it was meant (idiom) * kindred spirit * methlyated spirit * moving spirit * party spirit * petroleum spirit * poor in spirit * proof spirit * pyroacetic spirit * rectified spirit * shad-spirit * spiritdom * spirited * spiriten * spirit-filled * spiritful * spirithood * spiritish * spiritless * spiritlike * spiritling * spiritly * spiritness * spiritous * spiritship * spiritsome * spiritual * spiritually * spirituality * spirit away (verb) * spirit gum * spirit lamp * spirit level * spirit off * spirit of hartshorn * spirit of salt * spirit of the law * spirit of turpentine * spirit of vitriol * spirit of wine * spirit rapper/spirit rapping * spirit stove * spirit world * spirit writing * surgical spirit * team spirit * that's the spirit * the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak * white spirit * wood spirit * zombie spirit (spirit)

    See also

    * ghost * soul

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To carry off, especially in haste, secrecy, or mystery.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2009, date=February 8, author=Dave Kehr, title=Buñuel at His Wildest, in Circulation Again, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=God does not make an appearance, but the Devil (Ms. Pinal) emphatically does: first in the guise of a schoolgirl who tries to lure Simon down with the sight of her shapely legs; then as a bearded but blatantly female Jesus carrying a lamb; and finally as a stylishly coiffed woman who succeeds in spiriting Simon off, by means of a jet, to a Manhattan discotheque — Buñuel’s persuasive idea of hell.}}
  • * Willis
    • I felt as if I had been spirited into some castle of antiquity.
  • To animate with vigor; to excite; to encourage; to inspirit; sometimes followed by up .
    • Civil dissensions often spirit the ambition of private men.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Many officers and private men spirit up and assist those obstinate people to continue in their rebellion.

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