cinematograph

Older Spelling, kin·e·mat·o·graph

[sin-uh-mat-uh-graf, -grahf]

noun

1. an early movie camera or projector, often a single mechanical device to record and project film.

2. Older Use.,  a movie theater.

verb (used with or without object)

1. Older Use.,  to record as a movie.

cinematograph

/ -ˌɡræf, ˌsɪnɪˈmætəˌɡrɑːf /

noun

1. a combined camera, printer, and projector

verb

1. to take pictures (of) with a film camera

Other Word Forms

• cinematographic adjective
• cinematographically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of cinematograph¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; from French cinématographe, equivalent to cinémat- (from Greek kīnēmat-, stem of kī́nēma “motion”) + -o- connecting vowel + -graphe noun suffix; -o-, -graph

Word History and Origins

Origin of cinematograph¹

C19 (earlier spelling kinematograph ): from Greek kinēmat-, kinēma motion + _-graph

Example Sentences

As a matador dies, his sensory perception radically changes and ends with his last heartbeat in a series of effective repetitions and comparisons: “Maera felt everything getting larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then it got larger and larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then everything commenced to run faster and faster as when they speed up a cinematograph film. Then he was dead.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The party would feature presentations on the latest scientific developments, including a newfangled invention called the cinematograph.

Read more on Literature

Not long after his death, a shoemaker’s son named Georges Méliès purchased the Theatre Robert-Houdin and upon seeing a demonstration of the newly invented cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, acquired his own projector.

Read more on New York Times

By the following year in a bleak review of the 1947 box office, editors at Life wrote, "Since the invention of the cinematograph, hardly a movie season has seen the bad pictures so heavily outweigh the good."

Read more on Salon

In 1909, the Cinematograph Act was introduced to try to ensure that all screenings took place in buildings which were safe and suitable for public showings.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

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