From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishprotagonistpro‧tag‧o‧nist /prəʊˈtæɡənɪst $ proʊ-/ noun [countable] formal 1 ALthe most important character in a play, film, or story SYN main character2 COMPETE WITH/TRY TO BEATone of the most important people taking part in a competition, battle, or struggle the main protagonists in the conflict3 SUPPORT A PERSON, GROUP, OR PLANone of the most important supporters of a social or political ideaprotagonist of a protagonist of educational reform
Examples from the Corpus
protagonist• Their supernatural protagonists had encapsulated the virtues and vices of human beings, thoroughly homogenized.• And the protagonists sounded fairly confident in their attempts to resolve the dilemma.• Birds are the protagonists of Jean-Luc Mylayne's photographed imaginary story at Meteo until the end of the month.• After this declaration, one of the protagonists must go.• The U.N. Security Council has influence with some of the protagonists in the conflict.• The protagonist of Alfredo also represents virtue and vice combined in a single protagonist.• Racine has entered the drawingroom, and these protagonists engage either in anguished self-revelation or in disillusioning judgments about each other.main protagonists• The antics of the main protagonists certainly seemed to prove that something was radically wrong in the way our schools were organised.• One way to gain insight into these issues is to view them through the work of some of the main protagonists.• The main protagonists are the chief officers and chairs of the committees.• In Diva much of the shooting highlights the interiors of the domiciles of the two main protagonists, Jules and Borodin.Origin protagonist (1600-1700) Greek protagonistes, from agonistes “competitor, actor”