characterization
Americannoun
-
characterizations
plural
-
portrayal; description.
the actor's characterization of a politician.
- Synonyms:
- delineation, depiction, representation
-
the act of characterizing or describing the individual quality of a person or thing.
-
the creation and convincing representation of fictitious characters, as in a literary work.
noun
-
description of character, traits, etc
-
the act of characterizing
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of characterization
1560–70; < Medieval Latin charactērizāt ( us ) marked (past participle of charactērizāre to characterize; see -ate 1) + Latin -iōn- -ion
Explanation
If you write a play portraying your workplace as comically disorganized and woefully inefficient, you better hope it makes money, because your boss may fire you for this characterization. The word characterization describes how something is represented. When you break apart the word characterization it’s easy to figure out what it means. Character tells you that this word will likely involve the qualities a person or thing has. The -ization ending means it is a noun — the act of doing something. You can use the word characterization to describe the depiction of a character in a book or a movie, or also as a way a particular person, group, or event is portrayed, such as a journalist’s characterization of a political enemy.
Vocabulary lists containing characterization
Vocabulary to Describe Literary Devices
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Reading: Literature - Fiction - Introductory
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Literary Terms, Grade 7, Unit 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The researchers next used time-resolved characterization methods at the University of Geneva to identify the best experimental conditions and timescales for the X-ray measurements.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
Corey Riday-White, managing attorney for the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, disputes that characterization.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
At a Thursday press briefing, South Korea’s industry minister, Kim Jung-kwan, objected to the U.S. characterization of the country’s Alaska LNG investment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Taken together, the available data resist a simple characterization of younger investors as either overly cautious or speculative.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Oriana gives a little gasp, probably afraid that Madoc would hear me, that he’d object to my characterization.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
The company distanced itself from Carlson and called his characterizations unscientific.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
I feel as though I’ve spent much of my summer taking shots at “Obsession” gussying up its thin characterizations to fool people into thinking it’s anything more than your standard horror sludge.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
He adopts colorful characterizations in classic begging-the-question fashion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
The piece argues that Pratt showed sufficient composure and charm while displaying deference to moderators and occasionally yielding speaking time to Bass, though the article notes he occasionally lapsed into mockery and made unsubstantiated characterizations.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
This was the decision that caused Hamilton to repeat his earlier characterizations of Burr as the unprincipled American Catiline, which in turn generated the newspaper reports containing the offensive word “despicable.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
