theater

See also: Theater

English

Alternative forms

• theatre (standard spelling in all English-speaking countries except the USA)

Etymology

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, /ˈθɪə.tɚ/

  • audio (US)

    (file)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Canada, Southern American English) IPA^(key): /ˈθi.eɪ.tɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪ.ə.tə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈθiətə/, [ˈθiə̯tɜ], [ˈθiə̯ɾɜ]

Noun

theater (countable and uncountable, plural theaters)

1. A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Oscar Wilde:

     The theater is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, it is also the return of art to life.

2. A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.

   His grandfather was in the Pacific theater during the war.

3. A lecture theatre.
4. (medicine) An operating theatre or locale for human experimentation.

   This man is about to die, get him into theater at once!

5. (US) A cinema.

   We sat in the back row of the theater and threw popcorn at the screen.

6. Drama or performance as a profession or artform.

   I worked in the theater for twenty-five years.

Usage notes

• The spelling theatre is the main spelling in British English, with theater being rare.
• In United States English, theater accounts for about 80 percent of usage in the major corpus of usage, COCA.
• Among American theatre professionals, there is some usage of the two spellings in order to differentiate between the location theater (as in definitions 1-5) and the art-form theatre (definition 6). A variant of this differentiation is the usage of theatre for things relating to live performances (as in definitions 1 and 6) with theater being used for all other uses.

Derived terms

• theater of war

Translations

place or building

• Afrikaans: teater
• Albanian: teatër (sq) m
• Arabic: مَسْرَح‎ m (masraḥ)
• Armenian: թատրոն (hy) (tʿatron)
• Asturian: teatru m
• Azerbaijani: teatr (az)
• Bashkir: театр (teatr)
• Basque: antzerkia (eu)
• Belarusian: тэа́тр m (teátr)
• Bengali: মঞ্চনাটক (môñcnaṭôk), থিয়েটার (bn) (thiyeṭar)
• Bulgarian: теа́тър (bg) m (teátǎr)
• Burmese: ကပွဲရုံ (my) (ka.pwai:rum), ဇာတ်ရုံ (my) (jatrum)
• Catalan: teatre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 劇場, 剧场 (kek⁶ coeng⁴)

  Mandarin: 劇場 (zh), 剧场 (zh) (jùchǎng), 劇院 (zh), 剧院 (zh) (jùyuàn)

  Min Nan: 劇場 (zh-min-nan), 剧场 (kio̍k-tiû)

• Corsican: teatru m
• Czech: divadlo (cs) n
• Danish: teater (da) n
• Dutch: theater (nl) n
• East Central German: Dhejador
• Esperanto: teatrejo
• Estonian: teater
• Faroese: sjónleikarhús n
• Finnish: teatteri (fi)
• French: théâtre (fr) m
• Georgian: თეატრი m (teaṭri)
• German: Theater (de) n, Schauspielhaus n, Theatergebäude n, Theaterhaus n
• Greek: θέατρο (el) n (théatro)

  Ancient: θέατρον n (théatron)

• Greenlandic: isiginnaartitsisarfik
• Haitian Creole: teyat
• Hebrew: תֵּאַטְרוֹן‎ (he) m (teatron)
• Hindi: थिएटर (hi) (thieṭar), रंगमंच (raṅgmañc)
• Hungarian: színház (hu)
• Icelandic: leikhús n
• Indonesian: teater (id)
• Irish: amharclann (ga) f
• Istriot: taiatro m
• Italian: teatro (it) m
• Japanese: 劇場 (ja) (げきじょう, gekijō), シアター (shiatā)
• Kalmyk: җөҗг (jöjg)
• Kashubian: téater m
• Kazakh: театр (kk) (teatr)
• Khmer: រោងល្ខោន (roonglkhaon)
• Korean: 극장 (ko) (geukjang) (劇場 (ko))
• Kyrgyz: театр (ky) (teatr)

• Lao: ໂຮງລະຄອນ (lo) (hōng la khǭn)
• Latvian: teātris (lv) m
• Lithuanian: teatras m, vaidykla f
• Macedonian: теа́тар m (teátar)
• Malay: teater
• Maltese: teatru (mt) m
• Maori: whare tapere, whare purei
• Mongolian: театр (mn) (teatr)
• Norman: thiâtre m (Jersey), théyâte m (continental Normandy), théatre m (Guernsey)
• Norwegian: teater (no) n
• Pashto: تياتر‎ (ps) m (tyãtər), نندارځى‎ m (nəndãrjáy)
• Persian: تئاتر‎ (fa) (te'âtr)
• Polish: teatr (pl) m
• Portuguese: teatro (pt) m
• Romanian: teatru (ro) m
• Russian: теа́тр (ru) m (teátr)
• Rusyn: теа́тр m (teátr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: театар m, позориште n, казалиште n

  Roman: teatar (sh) m, pozorište (sh) n, kazalište (sh) n

• Silesian: tyjater m
• Sinhalese: නාට්‍ය කලාව (nāṭ‍ya kalāva)
• Slovak: divadlo (sk) n
• Slovene: gledališče (sl) n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: źiwadło n

  Upper Sorbian: dźiwadło (hsb) n

• Spanish: teatro (es) m
• Swahili: ukumbi (sw), thiata
• Swedish: teater (sv) c
• Tagalog: dulaan
• Tajik: театр (tg) (teatr)
• Tamil: அரங்கு (ta) (araṅku)
• Tatar: театр (teatr)
• Thai: โรงละคร (roong-lá-kɔɔn)
• Tibetan: ཟློས་གར (zlos gar)
• Turkish: tiyatro (tr)
• Turkmen: teatr
• Ukrainian: теа́тр (uk) m (teátr)
• Urdu: تھیٹر‎ (thi'eṭar)
• Uyghur: تىياتىر‎ (tiyatir), تىياتىرخانا‎ (tiyatirxana)
• Uzbek: teatr (uz)
• Vietnamese: nhà hát (vi)
• Volapük: teatöp (vo)
• Walloon: teyåte (wa) m
• Welsh: theatr (cy) f
• Yiddish: טעאַטער‎ m (teater)
• Zhuang: heiqciengz, yienh

region

• Finnish: rintama (fi)
• Indonesian: palagan (id)

• Spanish: zona (es)

lecture theatre

• Finnish: luentosali (fi)

• Greek: αμφιθέατρο (el) n (amfithéatro)

medicine: operating theatre — see operating theatre

cinema — see cinema

drama or performance as a profession or artform

• Arabic: مَسْرَح‎ m (masraḥ)
• Asturian: teatru m
• Catalan: teatre (ca) m
• Czech: divadlo (cs) n
• Dutch: theater (nl) n
• Finnish: teatteri (fi), ilmaisutaito (fi)
• French: théâtre (fr) m
• Hungarian: színház (hu)
• Ido: teatro (io)
• Lao: ລະຄອນ (la khǭn)

• Persian: تئاتر‎ (fa) (teâtr)
• Polish: teatr (pl) m
• Portuguese: teatro (pt) m
• Russian: теа́тр (ru) m (teátr)
• Spanish: teatro (es) m
• Swedish: teater (sv) c
• Thai: ละคร (th) (lá-kɔɔn)
• Volapük: teat (vo)
• Walloon: teyåte (wa) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Catalan: ^{(please verify)} teatre (ca) m
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} teatru (mt)

• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} kazalište (sh), ^{(please verify)} pozorište (sh), ^{(please verify)} gledalište (sh), ^{(please verify)} glumište (sh)

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of theatre

Anagrams

• hat tree, hattree, teareth, tethera, theatre, thereat

---

Dutch

Etymology

From Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /teːˈ(j)aːtər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: the‧a‧ter
• Rhymes: -aːtər

Noun

theater n (plural theaters, diminutive theatertje n)

1. theater (US), theatre (Commonwealth): either drama, the art form, or a drama theater (building)

Synonyms

• schouwburg

Derived terms

• danstheater
• theaterkunst
• volkstheater

---

Middle English

Alternative forms

• theatre, teatre, theatyr, theatere

Etymology

From Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɛːˈatər/, /θɛːˈatər/, /tɛːˈaːtər/, /θɛːˈaːtər/

Noun

theater

1. A theatre open to the sky; an amphitheatre.
2. Any stage which plays and performances take place at.
3. (rare) A whorehouse.

Descendants

• English: theater, theatre
• Scots: theatre

References

• “thē̆ā̆tre (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.