protagonist

noun pro·tag·o·nist \ prō-ˈta-gə-nist \

|Updated on: 19 Jul 2018

Examples: protagonist in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of protagonist

1 a (1) : the principal character in a literary work (such as a drama or story)

(2) : the leading actor or principal character in a television show, movie, book, etc.

b : an active participant in an event

2 : a leader, proponent, or supporter of a cause : champion

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Examples of protagonist in a Sentence

Badlands has two protagonists and Days of Heaven four (though both movies are rich in colorful minor roles). —Richard Alleva, Commonweal, 12 Mar. 1999
The protagonists of Gordon's fiction are children who have been saddled with their parents' emotional bad debts. —Judith Thurman, New Yorker, 12 Mar. 1990
The most adamant opposition to my argument is likely to come from protagonists of secular reason … —Glenn Finder, Atlantic, December 1989
She was a leading protagonist in the civil rights movement.
Milton Friedman is usually cited as the leading American protagonist of monetarism.

Recent Examples of protagonist from the Web

Japanese voice actor Yuuki Kaji, who plays the protagonist Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan, attended the L.A. convention and seemed thrilled about the collaboration.

— billboard japan, Billboard, "X JAPAN & HYDE Join Forces for 'Attack on Titan' Anime Series Opener, 'Red Swan'," 13 July 2018
Eileen, the novel’s protagonist, was not attractive, and Moshfegh felt annoyed to discover that readers focused on that fact, as if the demeaning and ugly things the character did came from her lack of physical beauty.

— clare mchugh, Time, "Why Ottessa Moshfegh Is One of the Best Novelists of the Summer," 12 July 2018
Each episode ends up as an extended joke about how the superhero genre works, with every hideous, terrifying protagonist defeated in a quick overdetermined anticlimax.

— noah berlatsky, The Verge, "The best superhero stories admit that superheroes are ridiculous," 11 July 2018
Brief scenes of King Louis discussing France’s financial aid to the revolution in America are an injection of reality more jarring than informative given the claustrophobic nature of the protagonist’s existence.

— refinery29.com, "Why Marie Antoinette Is Really Mean Girls, Versailles Edition," 10 July 2018
Named Jyn Erso, after the protagonist in Rogue One who teams up with the Rebel Alliance to steal the plans for the Death Star, the new initiative merges the Army’s top technologists with experts from the private sector.

— issie lapowsky, WIRED, "The Pentagon Is Building a Dream Team of Tech-Savvy Soldiers," 2 July 2018
By learning the language of alien visitors, the movie’s bold protagonist perceives the world in new ways and — spoiler alert! — experiences time itself in a nonlinear way.

— tim lomas, BostonGlobe.com, "1,000 words for happiness," 1 July 2018
The creators have made one great improvement on their original version, fashioning a satisfying dramatic arc for protagonist Lucy Parsons, whose struggle to find her voice as a union leader nicely intertwines the personal and the political.

— justin hayford, Chicago Reader, "Haymarket is a workmanlike ode to the working man," 28 June 2018
No Way Out and The Defiant Ones, Nadel notes, did not allow viewers to see the moment in which each black protagonist overcomes prejudice and oppression.

— glenn c. altschuler, Philly.com, "Alan Nadel's 'Demographic Angst': The dark anxieties behind 1950s films," 15 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'protagonist.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Struggle, or conflict, is central to drama. The protagonist or hero of a play, novel, or film is involved in a struggle of some kind, either against someone or something else or even against his or her own emotions. So the hero is the "first struggler", which is the literal meaning of the Greek word prōtagōnistēs. A character who opposes the hero is the antagonist, from a Greek verb that means literally "to struggle against".

Origin and Etymology of protagonist

Greek prōtagōnistēs, from prōt- prot- + agōnistēs competitor at games, actor, from agōnizesthai to compete, from agōn contest, competition at games — more at agony

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1671

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year