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  • passion play
    passion play
    noun
    a dramatic representation of the passion of Christ, as that given every ten years at the Bavarian village of Oberammergau.
  • Passion play
    Passion play
    noun
    a play depicting the Passion of Christ

passion play

American  
Or Passion Play

noun

  1. a dramatic representation of the passion of Christ, as that given every ten years at the Bavarian village of Oberammergau.


Passion play British  

noun

  1. a play depicting the Passion of Christ

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of passion play

First recorded in 1865–70

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.

See Examples For:

Penn, who joined the Bruins as a grad transfer from Indiana last season, tracks each passion play on a chart during the game.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 17, 2023

“But we have an endless desire to bring our passion play back to the stage and we are highly motivated.”

From Seattle Times May 7, 2022

Then it was a three minute drive over to the “Sabrina” set, where Shipka, outfitted in a flowing rose-gold wig, was starring in her witch school’s passion play.

From New York Times Nov. 8, 2018

The painful 20-day passion play that followed — staged in committee rooms, Senate floor debates, hallway protests and millions of private conversations — did little to alter the future makeup of the Supreme Court.

From Washington Post Oct. 6, 2018

The "Passion Play" in Bavaria.—This year, the foreign journals state, is the year of the passion play of the Ammergau in Bavaria.

From The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, August 1850 of Literature, Science and Art. by Various

There are also plans for more offbeat repertoire, including Bohuslav Martinu’s “The Greek Passion,” which tells the story of a Greek village staging a Passion play, in a production led by the conductor Maxime Pascal.

From New York Times Dec. 9, 2022

"Superstar" is structured similarly to a traditional Christian Passion play, depicting Jesus' final days.

From Salon Apr. 16, 2022

No wonder his contemporaries have rushed to help prop up Elder’s Passion play of pomposity.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 27, 2021

It was the fifty-eighth anniversary of the operation, which ended in catastrophe; the annual commemoration has become a kind of Miami Passion play.

From The New Yorker Apr. 29, 2019

Indeed, so religious has the place become that on Good Friday the Passion play is acted in the Cathedral, and without the least sense of incongruity.

From Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo Comprising a Tour Through North and South Italy and Sicily with a Short Account of Malta by Devereux, W. Cope

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