Word.ws English Dictionary

builds character

builds character is the third-person singular simple present indicative of build character.

Meaning of build character

Verb

build character (third-person singular simple present builds character, present participle building character, simple past and past participle built character)

  1. (idiomatic) To improve a person's character by developing personality traits such as resilience or responsibility.
    • Pretty convenient how every time I build character, he saves a couple hundred dollars.1989 January 2, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)

Questions about builds character

What is builds character the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Builds character is the third-person singular simple present indicative of build character.

Words near builds character in the dictionary

  1. builds a better mousetrap
  2. builds a case
  3. builds air castles
  4. builds bridges
  5. builds castles in the air
  6. builds character
  7. builds down
  8. builds in
  9. builds into
  10. builds on
  11. builds on sand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: builds character (page history and authors); build character (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “builds character.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/builds_character. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.