cinema
[sin-uh-muh]
- Chiefly British. motion picture.
- the cinema, motion pictures
- Chiefly British. a motion-picture theater.
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Origin of cinema
First recorded in 1895–1900; short for cinematograph
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cinema
Contemporary Examples
In response to the screen quota cut, South Korea established a “cinema tax” on the box office.
Forty-two years after its debut, The Godfather casts a long shadow over American cinema.
President Park understood the power of cinema as propaganda.
Cinema Services gave him the heads-up that Sony was going forward with the December 25 release.
The Inside Story of How Sony’s ‘The Interview’ Finally Made It to TheatersMarlow Stern
December 23, 2014
He was able to move back and forth from the stage to the cinema.
Historical Examples
I suspected a false idea of this rude life had been given by the cinema dramas.
Ruggles of Red GapHarry Leon Wilson
If I had my way I'd be as pretty as a cinema star and twice as soulful.
Mixed FacesRoy Norton
No theaters, cinema shows but three nights a week, and this an off night.
Mixed FacesRoy Norton
As it is, she had the greatest difficulty in keeping them, because there's no cinema near.
A Boswell of BaghdadE. V. Lucas
I know you affect to scorn the cinema, and this was it, tremolo and all.
Coming HomeEdith Wharton
cinema
- mainly British
- a place designed for the exhibition of films
- (as modifier)a cinema seat
- the cinema
- the art or business of making films
- films collectively
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Word Origin
C19 (earlier spelling kinema): shortened from cinematograph
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cinema
n.
1899, "a movie hall," from French cinéma, shortened from cinématographe "motion picture projector and camera," coined 1890s by Lumiere brothers, who invented it, from Latinized form of Greek kinemat-, comb. form of kinema "movement," from kinein "to move" (see cite) + graphein "to write" (see -graphy). Meaning "movies collectively, especially as an art form" recorded by 1914. Cinéma vérité is 1963, from French.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper