playwright

American  

[pley-rahyt] / ˈpleɪˌraɪt /

noun

playwrights plural

1. a writer of plays; dramatist.

---

playwright British  

/ ˈpleɪˌraɪt /

noun

1. a person who writes plays

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• playwrights
  plural

Etymology

Origin of playwright

First recorded in 1680–90; play + wright

Explanation

A playwright is someone who writes plays. Playwrights are also known as dramatists. Just as a poet writes poems, a playwright writes plays. If the spelling of playwright looks odd, that's because wright is a word for a craftsperson or someone who builds things (like a shipwright builds ships). Given the juggling of characters, scenes, and plots in a play, you can see how writing a play is like building something. The most famous playwright ever in English is William Shakespeare.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

playwright playwrights

When I was a senior, Peter Hedges, who had already graduated and become a director and a playwright, invited me to New York to be in an off-off-Broadway play for a few days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

The Duke of York's theatre in London's West End is to be renamed after the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, says the theatre's owner.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

Alumni of the Ibadan stage include playwright and actor Akinwumi Isola, actress Martha Ehinome and actor Gabriel Afolayan.

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

The opera was composed by Still with a libretto from the Missouri-born poet, playwright, novelist and social activist Langston Hughes, who connected Haiti’s struggle for freedom to his home country’s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

Campbell had been a fairly well-known playwright at one time.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

Soon after, wannabe authoritarians attack the comedians, essayists, playwrights and poets.

From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026

ATG Entertainment said renaming the venue the Tom Stoppard Theatre would be a "lasting tribute... to one of the most influential playwrights in British theatre".

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

A cohort of playwrights, breathtakingly diverse demographically as well as aesthetically, has been rejuvenating American theater.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

Lucy Kirkwood, Penelope Skinner, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti are also among more than 70 UK-based playwrights taking part.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

Russia was known for its stormy classical music, its tormented poets, its mournful novelists and bittersweet playwrights.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood