theater
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See also: Theater
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- theatre (standard spelling in all English-speaking countries that use British spelling)
Etymology[edit]
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”). Doublet of tiatr.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, (sometimes) /ˈθɪə.tɚ/, [ˈθi(ə)ɾɚ]
Audio (US) (file)
- (Canada, Southern American English) IPA(key): /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, /ˈθi.eɪ.tɚ/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈθiː.ə.tə/, /ˈθɪə.tə/, (somewhat dated) /θiˈɛt.ə/, (obsolete) /θiˈeɪ.tə/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈθiətə/, [ˈθiə̯tɜ], [ˈθiə̯ɾɜ]
Noun[edit]
theater (countable and uncountable, plural theaters) (American spelling)
- 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.
- A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.
- 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 69:
- Percy had been too big for the town since he got back from the war. He served in the Pacific theater, behind the lines keeping up the supply chain.
- His grandfather was in the Pacific theater during the war.
- A lecture theatre.
- (medicine) An operating theatre or locale for human experimentation.
- This man is about to die, get him into theater at once!
- (US) A cinema.
- We sat in the back row of the theater and threw popcorn at the screen.
- Drama or performance as a profession or art form.
- I worked in theater for twenty-five years.
- Any place rising by steps like the seats of a theater.
Usage notes[edit]
- The spelling theatre is the main spelling in British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand 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.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- dubbing theater
- theaterette
- theatergoer
- theatergoing
- theater-in-the-round
- theaterland
- theaterless
- theatermaker
- theater of cruelty
- theater of fact
- theater of panic
- theater of protest
- theater of the absurd
- theater of the mind
- theater of the streets
- theater of war
- theaterwide
- theatral
- theatric
- theatrical
- theatrically
Translations[edit]
place or building
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region
lecture theatre
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medicine: operating theatre — see operating theatre
cinema — see cinema
drama or performance as a profession or artform
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- 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
See also[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Dutch[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Middle French théâtre, 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[edit]
Noun[edit]
theater n (plural theaters, diminutive theatertje n)
- theater (US), theatre (Commonwealth): either drama, the art form, or a drama theater (building)
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
theater
- A theatre open to the sky; an amphitheatre.
- Any stage which plays and performances take place at.
- (rare) A whorehouse.
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “thē̆ā̆tre, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *-trom
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English 3-syllable words
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English forms
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Medicine
- American English
- en:Drama
- en:Theater
- en:Buildings
- en:Film
- en:War
- Dutch terms borrowed from Middle French
- Dutch terms derived from Middle French
- Dutch terms derived from Old French
- Dutch terms derived from Latin
- Dutch terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Dutch/aːtər
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch neuter nouns
- nl:Buildings
- nl:Drama
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- enm:Buildings and structures
- enm:Prostitution
- enm:Theater