Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of character.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Cuvier, in one of a series of lectures, delivered at Paris, in the spring of last year, says, "the name chemistry, itself, comes from the word _chim_, which was the ancient name of Egypt;" and he states that minerals were known to the Egyptians "not only by their external characters, but also by what we at the present day call their _chemical characters_."

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 479, March 5, 1831 Various

  • Havelock Ellis [11] distinguishes, in addition to the primary and secondary sexual characters (as commonly defined), _tertiary sexual characters_, by which he denotes those differences between the sexes which do not attract our attention when we compare individual members of the two sexes, but which become noticeable when we compare the average male with the average female type.

    The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll 1900

  • Such distinctive characters are spoken of as _secondary sexual characters_, in contradistinction to the _primary sexual characters_, the reproductive organs.

    The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll 1900

  • And these principles may be generalised thus: _Whatever is constantly related to a phenomenon (cause or Kind), determined by certain characters, is related in the same way to any phenomenon, that has the same characters_.

    Logic Deductive and Inductive Carveth Read 1889

  • People have taken all the animals which possess in common not one character only, but a collection of characters of the most important kind, _dominant characters_, as they are called; and of these animals they have formed, to begin with, large primary groups; subdividing these afterwards according to the secondary differences, which distinguish different species in the same group from each other.

    The History of a Mouthful of Bread And its effect on the organization of men and animals Jean Mac�� 1854

  • _And then view the dark characters of sieges, ruins, murders, blood, and wars, in their orbs: track the characters_ to their forms!

    Lives of the Poets, Volume 1 Samuel Johnson 1746

  • Founder, mom and composer Belinda Takahashi's original music is performed by live orchestral musicians and paired with a cast of endearing puppet characters created and performed by the talented hands behind some of your favorite Muppet and Sesame Street characters*.

    San Francisco Sentinel 2010

  • _recessive_, and a pair of contrasted characters which act in this way are now called _factors_ or sometimes called _unit characters_.

    Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation George McCready Price

  • The only problem I have with new characters is that you focus on them and give us nothing interesting and totally neglect main characters from the previous seasons.

    The Tail Section » Lost Spoiler - Rodrigo Santoro Leaks Spoilers 2007

  • She placed herself in the middle of the court, where she made a great circle, and within it she wrote several words in Arabic characters, some of them ancient, and others of those which they call the characters of Cleopatra.

    Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights E. Dixon

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