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A Stock Character is a character who is instantly recognizable to us from other stories; the gruff grandpa, the snooty cheerleader, the bratty younger sibling. You can sum up their role in the story in a sentence or less and people will know exactly what you're talking about. Such characters are frequently one-dimensional in nature. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes that opens the door to Playing With Tropes as well. Sometimes two or more character types get combined as well.

A stock character can be an Archetype, an example of Characters As Device, or just very recognizable (Mary Sue).