147 Examples of Character Flaws

John Spacey, April 30, 2020

A character flaw is a limitation, fear, bias, personality shortfall or deficiency in a person who may be otherwise capable, likeable and talented. These can be used to describe a real person. However, the term character flaw is associated with storytelling whereby fictional characters are given weaknesses that make them more interesting, likeable or realistic. Audiences commonly find perfection to be unrelatable, boring or irritating such that even heroes are given flaws that make them more appealing. The following are common examples of character flaws.

Absent-Minded Professor	Aimless
Aloof	Antisocial
Anxiety	Arrogance
Audacious	Backstabber
Bad Liar	Biases
Bleak	Bluntness
Boring	Breaks the Law
Callous	Can't Keep a Secret
Childish	Commitment Issues
Compulsive	Cowardice
Craves Attention	Cruel
Defensiveness	Delusional
Directionless	Dishonest
Disloyal	Easily Distracted
Easily Offended	Egotistical
Evil Genius	Excessive Curiosity
Fails At Humor	Fake
Feelings of Inadequacy	Forgetful
Frivolous	Goofy
Gossipy	Greed
Gullibility	Hater
Heavy Sleeper	Hubris
Humorless	Hypocrisy
Idealist	Immature
Impulsive	Incompetent
Indecisiveness	Indulgent
Infamy	Irrational Fears
Jaded	Jealous
Judgemental	Laziness
Low Intelligence	Manipulative
Messy	Mischievous
Mistrust of Others	Mysterious Dark Past
Mysterious Dark Side	Naivety
Narcissist	Neat-Freak
Need for Validation	Nerdy
No Self-Control	Nosy
Obsessive	Out of Touch
Overambitious	Overly Competitive
Overly Dramatic	Overly Emotional
Overly Logical	Overly Practical
Overly Privileged	Overly Talkative
Own Worst Enemy	Paranoia
Passive Aggressive	Perfectionism
Pettiness	Phobias
Picky Eater	Points Out the Obvious
Poor Hygiene	Poser
Power Hungry	Preachy
Predictable	Prejudice
Prone to Well-Intentioned Failures	Prudishness
Pushover	Pushy
Rebellious	Reckless
Repeats Same Mistakes	Rude
Sarcastic	Schadenfreude
Self-Doubt	Self-Pity
Selfishness	Senile
Sense of Entitlement	Sensitive About a Weakness
Shallow	Shy
Smothers People	Snobbery
Social Anxiety	Social Climber
Socially Awkward	Sociopath
Solemn	Sore Loser
Spiteful	Spoiled
Spreads Rumors	Stubborn
Stuck in the Past	Superstitious
Tactlessness	Talks To Self
Temperamental	Theatrical
Thinks Out Loud	Timid
Too Nice	Tragic Flaw
Unfaithful	Unlucky
Unrealistic	Unreasonable
Unskilled at Something e.g. driving	Unstable
Unstable Relationships	Use of Profanity
Vain	Vice
Workaholic

Notes

A tragic flaw is a weakness that ultimately leads to a hero's downfall.

The term character flaw refers to the personality of an individual. In the context of storytelling, this is sometimes extended to include physical and mental conditions of a character. For example, a character with a chronic sleep disorder.