Dictionary

dramatis personae en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dramatis personae (literally “characters of the play”).

Meanings

1. (plural, plural-normally) The characters in a play, story, or history; a list of them, usually arranged in order of first appearance, as protatic matter.
   • Meanwhile, the other two main actors, Richard Dreyfuss as boyish ichthyologist Hooper and Robert Shaw as grizzled shark-hunter Quint, further added to the deepening of the dramatis personae by the paradoxical boon that they loathed each other. 2025 June 14, Nigel Andrews, “They don’t come any bigger”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13:
   • Marx created a narrative populated by workers, capitalists, officials and scientists who were history’s dramatis personae. 2015 February 18, Yanis Varoufakis, “Yanis Varoufakis: How I became an erratic Marxist”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2024:
   • (The Devil enters like a sapphire wasp That flickers mica wings. He lifts a hand To brush away a disrespectful smile. Job’s wife sits up.) Job’s Wife ➢ Well, if we aren’t all here. Including me, the only Dramatis Personae needed to enact the problem. 1945, Robert Frost, A Masque of Reason:
   • Edward Winslow, in Plymouth, made a revealing statement when he wrote, “We came here to avoid the hierarchy, the holy days, the Book of Common Prayer, etc.” […] There were, depending on the local area, many types of hierarchies in England […] If all this social structure was to be “avoided,” what substitutions did New England town leaders intend in order to provide form, spirit, and leadership to their new idealistic small commonwealths? How successful were any of these town leaders, and how did they measure their successes? Although each early Massachusetts, or New England, town might well provide distinct and fascinating answers, the historian is limited by his documents. Furthermore, he should not attempt to crowd his stage too much, lest the dramatis personae overwhelm his audience. One town, well documented in relation to its specific origins, can serve as a representative study for most early New England towns until further investigation takes place. 1963, Sumner Chilton Powell, “Introduction”, in Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, Wesleyan University Press:
   • Instead of a dramatis personae of species, The Dinosaurs uses its beasts to illustrate climate, daily life, movement, danger, even extinction. So we meet nesting hydrosaurs, a singing pair of parasaurolophi, a herd of treetop-browsing brontosaurs. 1981 December 15, Don Lessem, “Paperbacks ’81: Novelty items with soft covers”, in Richard M. Gaines, editor, The Boston Phoenix, volume X, number 50, Boston, Mass.: Boston Phoenix Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, section 7 (The Season: Part III), review of “THE DINOSAURS. By William Stout. […]”, page 16, column 5:

Forms

Relateds

personnel · melodramatic · personification · protasis · drama · dramatic

Translations (4)

uk дійові́ осо́би (list of characters) · pl osoby dramatu (list of characters) · ru действующие лица (list of characters) · de Dramatis Personae (list of characters)