playwright

American  

[pley-rahyt] / ˈpleɪˌraɪt /

noun

playwrights plural

1. a writer of plays; dramatist.

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playwright British  

/ ˈpleɪˌraɪt /

noun

1. a person who writes plays

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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

There is certainly an unhurried pace to poet and playwright Andri Snær Magnason’s ruminations on his island nation’s disappearing glaciers, and a meditative quality to the film’s startlingly beautiful visuals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

It was translated into English for the first time by playwright George Chapman in the early 17th Century.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

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

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

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

Therefore I propose that someone with a keen sense of the theatrical, a talent for mimicry and improvising dialogue—a playwright, perhaps?—be engaged as an understudy to the ghost, as it were.”

From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood

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

The goal of playwrights grappling seriously with what it means to be an American today isn’t to score social media points but to shed light on the fractured reality of our collective experience.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

“Since You’re Mortal . . . ” focuses on the playwrights, and represents the first time any part of Stobaeus’ anthology has been published in English.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026

Poets, philosophers and playwrights gushed and paid homage to him, including T. S. Eliot, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, whose sinister Dorian Gray was an early Wagnerite.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall