Supercharacter
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A superhero or supervillain.
"The Lensmen are shown, however, as a superior race, with advanced mental and physical powers, and there are few instances when mere humans appear in the stories or comment on these supercharacters."
- 2 An amalgamation of characters that respond to the same selective pressure.
"The combination of characters contributing to the supercharacter need not be logically or genetically related."
- 3 A single entity that represents multiple irreducible characters but is treated as a single character in the algebraic theory of Carlos André.
"The supercharacter analog of the A.A."
- 4 A group of characters in a play, movie, or story, that act together as a single combined entity.
"His separate existence, indeed, is now superfluous: the conflict over, his better qualities are incorporated in the lover who survives, the more mature stage of the supercharacter Palamon-Arcite-Emetreus-Lygurge."
- 5 Something that pervades a story as a common theme or presence, transcending the level of individual characters.
"As one critic has astutely noted, ideas in Huxley's novels assume the role of "supercharacters.""
Example
More examples"The Lensmen are shown, however, as a superior race, with advanced mental and physical powers, and there are few instances when mere humans appear in the stories or comment on these supercharacters."
Etymology
From super- + character.
More for "supercharacter"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.