"ghost character" meaning in All languages combined

See ghost character on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: ghost characters [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} ghost character (plural ghost characters)
  1. (drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose.
    Sense id: en-ghost_character-en-noun-O1oGxZCe Categories (other): Drama, Literature Topics: broadcasting, drama, dramaturgy, entertainment, film, lifestyle, literature, media, publishing, television, theater
  2. (computing) Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin.
    Sense id: en-ghost_character-en-noun-XD~-W7~4 Categories (other): Computing, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Stock characters Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 28 72 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 30 70 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 27 73 Disambiguation of Stock characters: 20 80 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ghost characters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "ghost character (plural ghost characters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Drama",
          "orig": "en:Drama",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Literature",
          "orig": "en:Literature",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              99,
              114
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 231:",
          "text": "Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              2,
              19
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 68:",
          "text": "A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              38,
              53
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 277:",
          "text": "Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "id": "en-ghost_character-en-noun-O1oGxZCe",
      "links": [
        [
          "drama",
          "drama"
        ],
        [
          "literature",
          "literature"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "stage",
          "stage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "broadcasting",
        "drama",
        "dramaturgy",
        "entertainment",
        "film",
        "lifestyle",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "television",
        "theater"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "28 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 70",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 80",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Stock characters",
          "orig": "en:Stock characters",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "id": "en-ghost_character-en-noun-XD~-W7~4",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "Kanji",
          "kanji"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ghost character"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Stock characters"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ghost characters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "ghost character (plural ghost characters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Drama",
        "en:Literature"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              99,
              114
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 231:",
          "text": "Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              2,
              19
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 68:",
          "text": "A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              38,
              53
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 277:",
          "text": "Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "drama",
          "drama"
        ],
        [
          "literature",
          "literature"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "stage",
          "stage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "broadcasting",
        "drama",
        "dramaturgy",
        "entertainment",
        "film",
        "lifestyle",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "television",
        "theater"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Computing"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "Kanji",
          "kanji"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ghost character"
}

Download raw JSONL data for ghost character meaning in All languages combined (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (3dadd05 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.