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characterology

9.9

The study of characters' personalities and development in books, plays, or films

noun
/ˌkɛrɪktəˈrɑlədʒi/

Literature

: caracterología

The film's deep characterology provided insight into the motivations of its main characters.

Examples

The supposed frivolity and superficiality of the French were commonplaces of popular literature on national characterology in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Academic text (2014)
Your suggestion that the book is explicitly concerned with characterization piqued my interest, as a clichéd characterology is one of the genre's biggest problems (especially in recent years).

Blog text (14)
In her thesis, she focused on characterology to explore the growth of the protagonist throughout the novel.
His lectures on characterology analyze how authors develop distinct personalities in their stories.

How Detailed

characterology

Literature

9.9

biography

188 2.6

portraiture

1 7.5

profile

Literature

243 3.4

sketch

56 3.5

Surface Forms

characterology singular

characterologies plural

Morphology

characterology = character (transparent) = character + ology

The word is a clear combination of 'character' and the study suffix '-ology', so the meaning is readily recoverable from the base word.

Etymology

Characterology is made from character (once a 'mark' left by a tool) and -ology ('study of'), so it literally means 'study of characters'. In books and plays, this fits well because authors 'carve' or shape characters, which is why the word is used for studying their personalities and development.