Romeo and Juliet

American  

noun

1. a tragedy (produced between 1591 and 1596) by Shakespeare.

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Romeo and Juliet Cultural  

1. A tragedy by William Shakespeare about two “star-crossed lovers” (see also star-crossed lovers) whose passionate love for each other ends in death because of the senseless feud between their families. The line “Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” is well known.

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Figuratively, a “Romeo” is an amorous young man.

Example Sentences

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Romeo and Juliet

At the Capulet ball where Romeo and Juliet meet, Juliet and her mother grab microphones and sing a brief duet, presumably because Lady Capulet is played by LaChanze, a musical-theater star.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

His own narrative, however, fails to make Romeo and Juliet live anew as fresh characters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026

Thompson: The masquerade ball made me think about Romeo and Juliet a lot.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026

Sam Heughan stars in Romeo and Juliet at the RCS in 1999, alongside Alana Hood.

From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2026

The person most haunted by Berlioz’s symphonic setting of Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, was Richard Wagner, who used it as a stylistic template for his opera Tristan und Isolde in 1865.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall