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role

role

534 1.0
A part an actor plays in a play or film
  • noun
  • /roʊl/
translation icon : papel
  • In the play, she delivered a stunning performance in the role of a tragic heroine.
  • play the role
  • take on the role
  • perform a role

My first big, big role is the role that I created myself.

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Examples

  • What's your favorite role that your dad has ever played?

  • Well, it's a role I was born to play.

  • You have played roles mostly that are very powerful.

  • Alexander, this is the role of a lifetime.

  • It was my first starring role.

  • He auditioned for this small role and killed it.

  • One of the reasons she got the role as Cassandra Ingles.

  • The notebook played a big role in getting me the role of Corny Collins.

  • His first Broadway role.

  • He is known for his ability to immerse himself completely in the role of a villain.

Synonyms

part
vsrole
1.0

A person's role in a group or activity

refers specifically to what an actor plays in plays films and performances
character
vsrole
3.2

A person in a story, play, or film

focuses on the actor's portrayed identity rather than the story person
persona
vsrole
27 6.3

A role an actor plays in a play or film

is the same idea expressed in the standard theatrical sense
1 3.9

A character an actor plays in a play or stage show

is the broader term covering stage film and other performances

Idioms

To have an important effect on how something happens

Compounds

213 2.8

A person that others look up to and try to copy

33 3.6

An important part of a process, event, or group

26 2.0

An important part in an event or process

14 3.3

An activity where people pretend to be someone else to practice real situations

11 3.4

Ideas in a society about how men and women should behave

7 5.4

The main character a play, film, or show is named after

3 3.5

A small, less important part in a play, film, or TV show

role player
  • Jargon
2 3.9

A person who plays a fictional character in a game with others for fun

instrumental role
  • Specialized
1 7.5

A thing used by a person to do something, like a key used to open a door

1 3.3

A person who plays a part in a play, movie, or show

A character an actor plays in a play or stage show

benefactive role
  • Specialized
9.9

A person or thing that benefits from an action in a sentence

A character in a play who is not clearly male or female

affected role
  • Specialized
9.1

A person or thing that an action happens to but does not cause

agentive role
  • Specialized
9.3

The person or animal that makes the action happen in a sentence

locative role
  • Specialized
9.7

The part of a sentence that shows where something happens

A role taken mainly for money rather than loyalty

recipient role
  • Specialized
8.5

A person or animal that receives something in a sentence

resultant role
  • Specialized
9.9

A noun that names something made by an action

participant role
  • Specialized
9.4

The part a word has in a sentence, for example doing the action or being affected by it

patient role
  • Specialized
8.5

A person or thing that an action happens to in a sentence

A person who leads and organizes actions and decisions in important talks

semantic role
  • Specialized
7.7

The job a noun phrase has with the main verb, like the doer or the one affected

temporal role
  • Specialized
8.8

A word or phrase that shows when something happens, like yesterday

How Prominent

starring
4.1
lead
279 4.6
role
534 1.0
minor role
3 3.5
bit part
5 4.1
walk-on
  • Jargon
11 6.8

Surface Forms

role singular
roles plural

Etymology

Role comes from an old word for a paper roll that listed an actor's lines. So a role became the part an actor plays.