Board Thread:Site Problems and Appearance/@comment-4854965-20141201172726/@comment-8161155-20141201220814

Well the word "recur" is composed of "occur" and the prefix "re" meaning "again". So technically, "recur" means "occurring again", in other words, more than once. So a recurring character is anyone who appears more than once, regardless of whether or not they have lines. What you're thinking of is backround characters, which are characters that have little or no significance to the plot. Backround characters can be recurring or nonrecurring, just like more important characters.

Now who counts as a recurring character vs. a main character? By my definition, you have to appear and play at least a semisignificant role in every episode (shorts don't count) to be a main character. So in my opinion, Soos is not a main character (he wasn't in E8), but most people disagree with me there.