diorama

American  

[dahy-uh-ram-uh, -rah-muh] / ˌdaɪ əˈræm ə, -ˈrɑ mə /

noun

dioramas plural

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.

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diorama British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dioramic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• dioramas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of diorama

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)

Explanation

If you use a shoebox and tiny toys to recreate the Battle of Normandy, you are creating a diorama, or three-dimensional model, of the event. At the Museum of Natural History in New York, you'll see dioramas, or scenes of animals or ancient peoples in their habitats. Before things like movies, television, and computers became common, the best way for large numbers of people to get an idea of what a lion might look like devouring its prey was by diorama.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

diorama dioramas

"It successfully generated enough formic acid to power a miniature diorama in the pavilion, showing its potential as an efficient artificial photosynthesis system that could potentially be used to charge applications in our homes."

From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026

Yet his compulsion to embrace the world’s majesty in the manner of an illustrated weekly or a Victorian diorama conflicted with the project of capturing the poetry of untamed America.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

In a diorama pitting the carnivorous Acrocanthosaurus against the massive plant-eating Astrodon, it is the larger sauropod that triumphs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2025

Formally, a diorama is a single scene in a narrative or story, like one still frame in a movie or one panel in a graphic novel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2024

It contained a diorama of a tramp asleep in a churchyard in front of a church door.

From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

I descended into a crevice in the earth shrouded by foliage, and passed through stone chambers with dioramas with an audio-guide explaining the dramatic saga.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

According to Axios, Trump has had models and dioramas built for other projects he is considering and has directed how and where new marble-tiled floors would be laid in the White House.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2025

There’s a quest, with a light puzzle to solve, that encourages guests to carefully read each of the five core fairy tales and look intently into its dioramas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2025

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

From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2024

Maybe skunk time would be when everyone in class did research about skunks and wrote reports about skunks and built skunk dioramas.

From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold