A protagonist is the central character in a story: the protagonist of Huckleberry Finn is — guess who? — Huckleberry Finn.
Pronunciation: /prəˈtæɡ.ən.ɪst/
English description: the most important character in a play, film, or story
Synonyms: main character
ORIGIN: A novel, movie, or play might have many main characters, but it can really only have one protagonist — or maybe two in the case of, say, Romeo and Juliet. That's because protos means "first" in Greek, and agonistes means "competitor" or "actor." It can also mean a leading figure in a real-life situation: "Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were the protagonistsof the U.S. Civil War." Don't use it to mean "a supporter of an idea or cause"; the word you're looking for in that situation is proponent.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
- The protagonists pass through battlefields with the bodies of soldiers, horses and, occasionally, skeletons.
- “Invasion!” could probably work as animated short, but the viewer has more intimacy with the film’s furry protagonist.
*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary
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