playbill
Americannoun
noun
-
a poster or bill advertising a play
-
the programme of a play
Etymology
Origin of playbill
Explanation
The little booklet you get when you go to the theater is called a playbill. A playbill usually includes a list of the cast and production crew. You can also call a playbill a program. At most theaters in the U.S., playbills are handed out to everyone in the audience as they enter. If you attend a Broadway play, you'll get a thick playbill with a lot of information about the play, the actors, and the venue—as well as a lot of advertising. A community theater or school production usually provides smaller, simpler playbills.
Vocabulary lists containing playbill
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
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Theater - Introductory
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Theater - Middle School
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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.
There are plenty of clues in the playbill.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2024
The audience’s involvement in the soul-searching to come is telegraphed when patrons pass through the Woolly Mammoth Theatre doors and are handed, along with a playbill, notebook paper and a pencil.
From Washington Post • Apr. 7, 2023
Growing up, I don’t have a memory of knowing what a gay person looked like, except my parents saw “La Cage aux Folles,” and I think I saw a picture for that on the playbill.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 2, 2020
But “Anatomy of a Suicide” isn’t the kind of show you can see then cavalierly head out for drinks, recycling your playbill along the way.
From New York Times • Feb. 18, 2020
“A gloomy wood,” according to the one playbill, was represented by a few shrubs in pots, green baize on the floor, and a cave in the distance.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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.
