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Synonyms

stock character

American  

noun

  1. a character in literature, theater, or film of a type quickly recognized and accepted by the reader or viewer and requiring no development by the writer.

Etymology

Origin of stock character

First recorded in 1860–65

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.

Iago, one of Shakespeare’s greatest villains, is an updated version of this stock character.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2026

Merely a stock character from what Lewis’s friend and mentor H.L.

From New York Times • Dec. 31, 2021

Besson’s filmography mirrors the descent of this stock character so precisely, it could well all be his fault.

From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2019

Horvath never becomes much more than a stock character, an unfulfilled mid-century suburban husband.

From Washington Post • May 1, 2019

They have left to us denunciations of the man which have made him odious to all after-ages, so that modern poets have made him a stock character, and have dramatized him as a fiend.

From The Life of Cicero Volume One by Trollope, Anthony

Definitions 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.