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

If only Johnson’s complexity were matched anywhere else in the screenplay.

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Baumbach and Mortimer write the character and his actor as closely together as possible so as to make the honest, emotional swings of their screenplay feel immediately resonant.

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Spawning not one but two soundtrack releases, the film had the air of a cultural phenomenon about it and anointed Anderson as a generational talent, earning him his first Academy Award nomination for the screenplay.

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It also landed Gyllenaal her second Academy Award nomination for adapted screenplay.

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There’s certainly precedent: Johnson was nominated for each of the first two “Knives Out” screenplays.

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Related Words

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