Jump to:

• 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

---

Etymology

Origin of passion play

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

“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

He is our voracious, inescapable character, like someone out of Saul Bellow or Paddy Chayefsky, a looming, blustery presence who has turned “Saturday Night Live” into a rollicking, national passion play.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 6, 2019

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

For all the light and shadow of sentiment and passion play even about the syllogism.

From A Preface to Politics by Lippmann, Walter