screenplay

[ skreen-pley ]

noun

1. a motion-picture or television scenario.
2. Older Use. a motion picture.

screenplay

/ ˈskriːnˌpleɪ /

noun

1. the script for a film, including instructions for sets and camera work

Word History and Origins

Origin of screenplay¹

First recorded in 1915–20; screen + play

Example Sentences

“The Cook of the Halcyon,” by Andrea CamilleriBefore he died in 2019 at age 93, novelist and film director Andrea Camilleri wrote in an author’s note that he had adapted the 27th Inspector Salvo Montalbano mystery from an unproduced screenplay.

From Washington Post

Otherwise, this category looks about how we expect the Oscars screenplay race to shape up.

From Washington Post

Longtime Wilson collaborator Ruben Santiago-Hudson wrote the screenplay, and the film was produced by Tony award-winner Denzel Washington, who played the lead in Wilson’s Fences on stage and on screen.

From Essence.com

Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, but it only won for its screenplay, which seems to underline Kael’s point a little if you take it as read that the best films in each individual category always win.

From Vox

Davis and Susan Sarandon were asked to give him some feedback on the screenplay.

From Freakonomics

Corden has actually been attached to Into the Woods since the first reading of the screenplay two-and-a-half years ago.

From The Daily Beast

Will the freedom you mentioned writing the novel bleed into your work writing your next screenplay?

From The Daily Beast

Does the process of writing a novel differ wildly from writing a screenplay?

From The Daily Beast

Star Wars was meant to be watched as a film, not read as a screenplay.

From The Daily Beast

If anyone pitched this as a screenplay, no one would have bought it.

From The Daily Beast

Related Words

• cinema
• feature
• film
• flick
• motion picture
• picture
• show
• videotape