starring

American  

[stahr-ing] / ˈstɑr ɪŋ /

adjective

1. featured or celebrated as a star in a movie, on a sports team, etc..

   He was already the starring quarterback on his high school football team, which was on its way to a state championship.

2. (of a character or role) leading, central, or primary.

   The earliest performance I can remember is when I played the starring role in a drama called The Littlest Angel at church.

   As the town’s largest employer, the university also plays a starring role in the local economy.

3. featuring a specified performer.

   They didn't give a beginner a starring movie when I started acting 18 years ago.

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Etymology

Origin of starring

star ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Explanation

Your attention-grabbing friend might be one who goes through life imagining it's a movie starring her. Starring means being the main character in a movie or play. Starring is an adjective that's used when someone's at the center of things, like a concert starring a famous cellist. The Greek word aster became the English word star, which was first used to mean "to be featured in a play" in the 1820s. If you imagine a star shining brightly in the dark night sky, it's easy to see how starring came to mean "being the most important on the stage."

Example Sentences

Johnson, 36, purchased the “masterclass in modernism” back in January 2016, when she paid $3.55 million for the property, using a chunk of the money she earned from starring in the “Fifty Shades” franchises.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 10, 2026

Bryan Unkeless, producer of “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” the Netflix film version of Shelby Van Pelt’s odd couple-meets-octopus drama starring Sally Field and Lewis Pullman, agrees.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026

The pair met while starring together in the film adaptation of Wicked.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026

Fun fact: Early has said that the film was inspired by ’90s TV movies like “Death of a Cheerleader,” a ripped-from-the-headlines drama starring Tori Spelling.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026

Many in the audience hooted as Maggie over-enunciated— raising her hands to heaven as if starring in some tragic play.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock