screenplay
Americannoun
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screenplays
plural
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a motion-picture or television scenario.
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Older Use. a motion picture.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of screenplay
Explanation
Before a movie can be filmed, a writer has to come up with a screenplay, a written script that describes all the action and every line the actors will speak. How entertaining, thrilling, realistic, or fantastic a movie is depends on many variables, one of the most important being the screenplay. A truly great screenplay includes brilliant dialogue that develops the characters and moves the action forward. TV shows and elaborate video games also require screenplays. Some writers adapt books or older movies into new screenplays, while others come up with entirely original stories for their screenplays.
Vocabulary lists containing screenplay
Academy Awards, List 3
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myPerspectives 7.3
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Introduction to Drama
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Wilson -- behind an acclaimed translation which Nolan has praised -- generated headlines this week after penning a scathing critique of his screenplay.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
It is the first in a trilogy by Nigerian-American author Tomi Adeyemi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of Bafta-nominated historical drama The Woman King.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
This knowledge supplies his screenplay with a sturdy base on which he crafts his story of parasocial fixation and all its consequences.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
“My Left Foot” was also nominated for best picture, director and adapted screenplay.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
During that turbulent final week of July 1943, William Faulkner was on the other side of the world in Hollywood, California, feverishly pulling together the screenplay for the sweeping wartime movie Battle Cry.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Although Dorothy Parker tried her hand at plays and had a successful writing career in Hollywood—her screenplays included 1937’s “A Star is Born”—she excelled in briefer forms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Braun’s script was on the Black List, a collection of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, which tends to reward hooky, high-concept projects, often to mixed results.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Films like “They Will Kill You” and those in the “Ready or Not” franchise incorporate visual elements of the divine and satanic to distract from their mediocre screenplays and recycled ideas.
From Salon ● May 19, 2026
"In the Writing categories, the rules codify that screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible."
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
Unable to get work there, he moved to England, where he wrote screenplays under pseudonyms.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
