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What ancient Greek dramatist introduced a "first actor" in a play, later called the protagonist?

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protagonist

American  

[proh-tag-uh-nist] / proʊˈtæg ə nɪst /

noun

• protagonists
  plural

1. the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work.

2. a proponent for or advocate of a political cause, social program, etc.

3. the leader or principal person in a movement, cause, etc.

4. the first actor in ancient Greek drama, who played not only the main role, but also other roles when the main character was offstage.

5. Physiology. agonist.

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protagonist British  

/ prəʊˈtæɡənɪst /

noun

1. the principal character in a play, story, etc

2. a supporter, esp when important or respected, of a cause, political party, etc

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protagonist Cultural  

1. The principal character in a literary work. Hamlet, for example, is the protagonist of the play by William Shakespeare that bears his name.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• protagonism
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• protagonists
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of protagonist

First recorded in 1665–75; from Greek prōtagōnistḗs “actor who plays the first part,” literally, “first combatant,” equivalent to prôt(os) “first” + agōnistḗs “one who contends for a prize, combatant, actor”; see origin at proto-, antagonist

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Explanation

A protagonist is the central character in a story: the protagonist of Huckleberry Finn is — guess who? — Huckleberry Finn. A novel, movie, or play might have many main characters, but it can really only have one protagonist — or maybe two in the case of, say, Romeo and Juliet. That's because protos means "first" in Greek, and agonistes means "competitor" or "actor." It can also mean a leading figure in a real-life situation: "Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were the protagonists of the U.S. Civil War." Don't use it to mean "a supporter of an idea or cause"; the word you're looking for in that situation is proponent.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

protagonist protagonists

Ms. Hoyer, a German-British historian and journalist, chooses as her protagonist not Hitler, a frequent Weimar visitor, but Carl Weirich, a hardworking bookbinder, stationer and diarist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

He also shrewdly compares Musk to the protagonist of a 1930s film adapted from an H.G.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

Port Talbot-born Creevy appeared in Netflix series Black Doves and The Guest as well as award-winning drama In My Skin, for which she won Bafta Cymru best actress for her portrayal of teenage protagonist Bethany.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

And then there’s the most famous Irish person of Jewish heritage, who despite being a fictional character can be said to have changed the world: Leopold Bloom, the ambiguous protagonist of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

I wrapped my right hand around the joystick and began to play, guiding my pizza-shaped protagonist through one maze after another.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

John Field, one of Li’s two protagonists, was in fact a classical pianist of some repute, having invented the nocturne form of composition that Chopin would make famous in Field’s lifetime.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

Too often, films whose protagonists voyage to foreign lands are considered mere travelogues—a form of cinematic tourism chiefly distinguished by the exoticism of the locales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Once the key protagonists in Premier League heavyweight contests, the Gunners would seemingly never contemplate allowing their top scorer to join United.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

Since they frequently fail, millennial protagonists suffer from a modern sort of arrested development.

From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026

The facts are true, even if the protagonists are fictions.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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Related Words

• central character
• central figure
• hero
• heroine
• lead character
• leading character
• leading figure
• main character
• main figure
• principal
• principal character
• principal figure

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