Meaning & use
a character witness
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablelegal
A person who gives evidence in court about another person's good character and reputation, often to support them.
Grammar: Countable; use 'a character witness' for one, 'character witnesses' for more than one. Often followed by 'for': a character witness for the defendant.
Patterns
- a character witness for someone
- call someone as a character witness
- appear as a character witness
His former employer appeared as a character witness at the trial.
The defense called three character witnesses to speak about his honesty.
She agreed to be a character witness for her friend.
Word forms
| plural | character witnesses |
|---|
Common combinations
- call a character witness
- The lawyer decided to call a character witness.
- act as a character witness
- He acted as a character witness for his colleague.
- character witness for the defense
- The character witness for the defense spoke quietly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- witness
- A general word for someone who gives evidence; a character witness specifically testifies about reputation, not about the facts of the case.
Word family
Commonly confused: a character witness or expert witness?
a character witness vs expert witness
An expert witness gives professional opinion on technical matters; a character witness speaks about someone's personal qualities and reputation.
Practice
The judge allowed his old teacher to appear as a ______ at the sentencing.
Choose one answer.
A character witness speaks about someone's good character. An expert witness gives technical opinion, an eye witness saw the event, and a witness stand is the place, not the person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a character witness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.