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

This “Mummy” turns its back on the spirit of the adventure films starring Brendan Fraser and seeks an all-out horror effect with a well-deserved R rating.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Thirteen years later, her play “My Master Builder,” inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master Builder,” was directed by Michael Grandage in London, starring Ewan McGregor and Elizabeth Debicki.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Maintaining third spot was "The Drama," a romantic comedy in its second week starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson about a couple unraveling just before their wedding.

From Barron's • Apr. 12, 2026

Smith: One of my favorite roles was starring in the TV movie “Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy” in 1981.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026

To put it squarely, such versions of the story failed to provide him with a starring role in the drama.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis