diorama

[dahy-uh-ram-uh, -rah-muh]

noun

1. a scene, often in miniature, reproduced in three dimensions by placing objects, figures, etc., in front of a painted background.

2. a life-size display representing a scene from nature, a historical event, or the like, using stuffed wildlife, wax figures, real objects, etc., in front of a painted or photographed background.

3. a spectacular picture, partly translucent, for exhibition through an aperture, made more realistic by various illuminating devices.

4. a building or room, often circular, for exhibiting such a scene or picture, especially as a continuous unit along or against the walls.

diorama

/ ˌdaɪəˈrɑːmə, ˌdaɪəˈræmɪk /

noun

1. a miniature three-dimensional scene, in which models of figures are seen against a background

2. a picture made up of illuminated translucent curtains, viewed through an aperture

3. a museum display, as of an animal, of a specimen in its natural setting

4. films a scene produced by the rearrangement of lighting effects

Other Word Forms

• dioramic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of diorama¹

1815–25; < French, equivalent to di- di- ³ + Greek ( h ) órāma view ( horā-, variant stem of horân to see, look + -ma noun suffix denoting the result of action)

Word History and Origins

Origin of diorama¹

C19: from French, from Greek dia- through + Greek horama view, from horan to see

Example Sentences

In museums, there are dioramas with cave people hunting mammoths with spears and movies are filled with examples of aggressive ancestors.

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Saber-toothed cats are iconic creatures often seen in museum dioramas, displays of fossil skeletons, and even the movie Ice Age.

Read more on Science Magazine

Around her living room, miniature dioramas of crucial moments in Black American history took up much of the horizontal space.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

County Museum of Natural History diorama of a simple red room wedged between a taxidermied wolf pack in the mountains on one side and polar bears on ice floes on the other.

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The dioramas have been expanded into full-blown environments — spring meadow, summery desert, autumn forest, arctic winter — arranged in a hub like the lands of Disneyland, each connected to a monster that reflects its color scheme.

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