NPC

abbreviation or noun

ˌen-ˌpē-ˈsē

plural NPCs

: a character in a video game that does not represent and cannot be manipulated by a player

NPCs can be programmed to detect and react to what is happening in the game …—

Robin Johnson

The pigeon barista served coffee to players and NPCs at The Roost Café in previous Animal Crossing installments …—

Elise Nelson

Believe me, as someone who has been paralyzed by a mob of angry zombies, it leads to an authentic feeling of … relief and gratitude when your NPC teammate saves you from a gruesome fate.—

Scott Rigby and Richard M. Ryan

called also non-player character

compare avatar sense 1

: a character in a role-playing board game, card game, or live-action game that is controlled or performed by an organizer, facilitator, or supporting participant

… the Dungeon Master exists to keep the world moving for the players. This usually entails rolling all the dice for the NPCs …—

Timothy Christopher

… when I first encountered [Dungeons & Dragons] I only played it once, with my mother and younger brother. … I clearly remember her inability to role-play the healing cleric NPC …—

Esther MacCallum-Stewart

At the Hudson Park Library show, we spoke with the people who played the NPCs. … Both of them first experienced the show as players in past productions, but volunteered to play NPC roles.—

Charles Battersby

called also non-player character

Examples of NPC in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

That's just an NPC though, as Ultizero Games has confirmed that Lost Soul Aside will be a single-player game. —

Tim Ryan, Newsweek, 18 Dec. 2024 The National People's Congress (NPC) press conference insinuated that the trade-in policy will likely be expanded, with details potentially coming from the mid-December China Economic Work Conference (CEWC). —

Brendan Ahern, Forbes, 26 Nov. 2024 Mantella, another Skyrim mod that gives LLM interactions to every Skyrim NPC, has 30,000 unique downloads. —

Jay Castello, The Verge, 17 Oct. 2024 Observers hope a specific figure for the stimulus could emerge from this week’s meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top body of China’s rubber stamp parliament, in Beijing. —

Chris Morris, Fortune Asia, 5 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for NPC