protagonist
/pɹoʊˈtæɡ.ə.nɪst/noun
protagonist is spelled P-R-O-T-A-G-O-N-I-S-T. The wrong spelling people search most is protaganist: about 250 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 20 of all searches for the word. Protagonist is a noun meaning “The main character, or one of the main characters, in any story, such as a literary work or drama”. The plural of protagonist is protagonists.
How many letters and syllables are in protagonist?
| Letters | 11: P-R-O-T-A-G-O-N-I-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.7 times per million words; the 11,685th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, protaganist, about 250 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell protagonist?
Protagonist is spelled P-R-O-T-A-G-O-N-I-S-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 19 of the searches for protagonist in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is protagonist?
Protagonist appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce protagonist?
- UK /pɹəˈtæɡ.ə.nɪst/
- UK /pɹəʊˈtæɡ.ə.nɪst/
- US /pɹoʊˈtæɡ.ə.nɪst/
Protagonist has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-protagonist.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with protagonist?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as protagonist from its last stressed vowel (/æɡənɪst/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of protagonist
- protagonists plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does protagonist mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The main character, or one of the main characters, in any story, such as a literary work or drama.
- 2
A leading person in a contest; a principal performer.
- 3
proscribedAn advocate or champion of a cause or course of action.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate protagonist?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of protagonist: protag.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Protagonist in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense main character:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | protagoniste, héros, héroïne |
| German | Protagonist, Protagonistin, Hauptfigur, Held |
| Portuguese | protagonista |
| Spanish | protagonista |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does protagonist come from?
From Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (prōtagōnistḗs, “a chief actor”), from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) + ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”). By surface analysis, prot- (“first”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).