Standard Lemma guide

demi-caractère

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Which, in the historical French nomenclature, was halfway between serious (sérieux) and comic (comique); typically, where the protagonists or the plot were not noble enough compared to those derived from mythology or history, but could still convey serious emotions (see for example the 1886 Camille Bellaigue quotation about Bizet's opera Carmen under French demi-caractère)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated, not-comparable

Qualifier: about a work for the stage or a performer's part in it

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: demicharacter

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French demi-caractère.