Char, René, 1907-88, French poet. His writing reflects both his Provençal origins and his years of active participation in the French resistance. At first attracted to surrealism, Char soon went his own way, constructing a verse marked by extreme stylistic economy. His poems and aphorisms express an effort to endow language with an authenticity lost in its everyday use.

char: see salmon.

Any of several freshwater food and game fishes (genus Salvelinus) of the salmon family, distinguished from the similar trout by light, rather than black, spots; by a boat-shaped, rather than flat, vomer (bone) on the roof of the mouth; and by having teeth on the front of the vomer rather than on the shaft. Char often have smaller scales than their relatives. The Arctic char, of North America and Europe, inhabits the Arctic and adjacent oceans and enters rivers and lakes to breed. It may weigh 15 lbs (7 kg) or more. The brook trout, Dolly Varden trout, and lake trout are native North American char.

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Char is the solid material that remains after light gases (e.g. coal gas) and tar (e.g. coal tar) have been driven-out or released from a carbonaceous material, during the initial stage of combustion, which is known as carbonization, charring, devolatilization or pyrolysis. Further stages of efficient combustion (with or without char deposits) are known as gasification reactions, ending quickly when the reversible gas phase water gas shift reaction reaches equilibrium.

Char may refer to:

• Char, the legendary weimaraner of the northeastern United States which had hundreds of babies named after him
• Salvelinus, a genus of fish; see also Arctic char
• Character (computing), a data type in many programming languages that is often referred to by its keyword "char"
• a floodplain sediment island in the Ganges Delta
• a common slang term for tea throughout British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries
• Char (StarCraft), a planet in the StarCraft universe
• a card from the game Magic: The Gathering http://www.trollandtoad.com/pd1673989.html?associateid=31_1
• the number 4 in Hindi
• Charmander or Chimchar; Pokémon characters
• A term for death in many ancient languages contained in Stephen King's Dark Tower Series.

In people:

• Char Aznable, a character from the Mobile Suit Gundam series
• Char Margolis, an American spiritualist
• René Char, a French poet
• Rajput, a Caste among Hindus in India, Pakistan and Nepal
• A charlady, an English house cleaner
• Char (artist), a Japanese guitarist

In tanks:

• Any French tank (from char d'assaut), but more specifically one with a short designation such as:
• Char B1, a French heavy tank manufactured before the Second World War
• Char 2C, a super-heavy French tank developed during the First World War
• Char D1, a pre-World War II French tank
• Char D2, a French tank of the Interbellum
• Char G1, a French replacement project for the Char D2 medium tank