scenery
Americannoun
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the natural features of a landscape
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theatre the painted backcloths, stage structures, etc, used to represent a location in a theatre or studio
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of scenery
Explanation
Scenery is a word for how a place looks, especially a beautiful, outdoorsy place. Also, scenery is fake background in a play. If you go to a place with mountains, and beautiful trees, and gorgeous skies, then it's got great scenery. Scenery is the stuff you can look at outside. If a place is plain, ugly, or desolate, you might say, "Not much scenery." Also, painters and set designers create scenery for plays. In theater, scenery could represent anything: buildings, trees, or the inside of a house. If a play has a lot of different settings, then it needs a lot of scenery.
Vocabulary lists containing scenery
List 8
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Plot Development
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"Grand Canyon Speech"
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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.
Now the scenery shifts to Mexico City and the hothouse of the iconic Azteca Stadium.
From BBC • Jul. 1, 2026
The greatest variation appeared when bees flew above the cornfield, where the scenery offered fewer distinct visual cues.
From Science Daily • Jun. 14, 2026
They aren’t there for the scenery; clean hydropower is cheap in the Nordics, and cold air to cool the data centers is free.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
Skeletor is all pixels with a clattering jaw perfect for chewing the scenery.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2026
I was still practicing law, but the specificity of the work and the change of scenery distracted me just enough from the bigger questions beginning to bubble up in my mind.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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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.