"ghost character" meaning in English

See ghost character in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

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. Categories (topical): Drama, Literature
    Sense id: en-ghost_character-en-noun-O1oGxZCe Topics: broadcasting, drama, dramaturgy, entertainment, film, lifestyle, literature, media, publishing, television, theater
  2. (computing) Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin. Categories (topical): Computing, Stock characters
    Sense id: en-ghost_character-en-noun-XD~-W7~4 Disambiguation of Stock characters: 19 81 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 27 73 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 27 73 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 24 76 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": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Drama",
          "orig": "en:Drama",
          "parents": [
            "Theater",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Literature",
          "orig": "en:Literature",
          "parents": [
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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"
        },
        {
          "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"
        },
        {
          "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": [
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        [
          "literature",
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        ],
        [
          "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": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "24 76",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "19 81",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Stock characters",
          "orig": "en:Stock characters",
          "parents": [
            "Fictional characters",
            "Fiction",
            "Artistic works",
            "Art",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "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": [
        {
          "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"
        },
        {
          "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"
        },
        {
          "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",
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        ],
        [
          "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 English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.