out of character

prepositional phrase

Inconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour.

“The burst of anger was out of character for the normally placid boy.”

Opposite
in character
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. idiomaticInconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour.

    The burst of anger was out of character for the normally placid boy.

    2 more examples

    In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.

    2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2012

    Now, that, admittedly, did do an awful lot more damage (the 5th and 6th were almost completely wiped out), but the High Seas Fleet was, in turn, almost completely wiped out (in fact, basically was wiped out, to a man) by the oncoming rest of the British Grand Fleet, and it was decided by everybody that this kind of, like, suicidal, completely suicidal, charge was probably a bit out of character for Hipper, and so we didn't take that particular one into account.

    2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 33:41 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2022
  2. idiomaticactingNot in character; not in the zone; not successfully performing within the mindset of a given character in a theatrical performance.

    I was out of character for most of the first act because those people in the third row wouldn't stop chatting.

  3. idiomaticroleplaying gamesactingNot acting; not "on"; behaving within one's natural personality rather than that of a character, or taking actions entirely outside the fictional context.

    The comedian stepped out of character to mug directly to the audience.

    2 more examples

    After watching him perform so energetically, it is a bit of a trip to hang out with him when he's out of character. In real life, he's really mellow.

    Susan asked the GM, out of character, whether she was able to sense magic in the room.

Synonyms & antonyms

Opposite
in character

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 出戲 /出戏
  • 出戲 /出戏 (chūxì)inconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
Finnish ei luonteenomainen
  • ei luonteenomaineninconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
French inhabituel de la part de quelqu'un, qui ne correspond pas à quelqu'un
  • inhabituel de la part de quelqu'uninconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
  • qui ne correspond pas à quelqu'uninconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
Māori haraki
  • harakiinconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
Polish nietypowy
  • nietypowyinconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
Russian несво́йственно
  • несво́йственно (nesvójstvenno)inconsistent with someone's personality, disposition, or usual expected behaviour
Cite this entry
APA

out of character. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out%20of%20character

MLA

“out of character.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out%20of%20character. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “out of character,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out%20of%20character.

Source: out of character on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.