motion picture
Americannoun
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Movies.
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a sequence of consecutive still images photographed in a series by a specially designed camera motion-picture camera and thrown on a screen by a projector motion-picture projector in such rapid succession as to give the illusion of natural movement.
Jean Cocteau produced some of the most innovative motion pictures of the postwar era.
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such a video sequence recorded and played in other media formats, as VHS or digital video.
Critics have given mixed reviews to the new trend of feature-length motion pictures shot on smartphones.
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a story, event, or the like, presented in this form.
The motion picture is adapted from the novel of the same name.
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motion pictures, the art, technique, or business of producing motion pictures.
The Academy honors achievement in motion pictures every year at the Oscars.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of motion picture
First recorded in 1890–95
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.
What we’re likely to be left with is an adaptation that hits all of the beats of the hundreds of motion picture takes on the story with all of their charms and idiosyncrasies smoothed away.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
"She actually looked at a motion picture and went, 'I get it! He's going to be the villain and they're going to do this'," he recalled.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
To display his photographs in rapid succession, Muybridge invented a device that birthed the motion picture.
From Slate ● May 25, 2026
“Going to the movies must be more affordable again,” Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures’ motion picture group, told a crowd of exhibitors at the recent CinemaCon industry convention in Las Vegas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
I had seen a motion picture one time at school about a parade in Washington.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
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.
