noun
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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
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.
Shortly after the latest separation, Ballerini—who had been living in Nashville, Tenn., at the time—chose to relocate for a change of scenery.
From MarketWatch • May 21, 2026
Though the fictional “Cars” and Cars Land community of Radiator Springs has no single inspiration, it echoes the scenery and history of several small towns between Tulsa, Okla., and Kingman, Ariz., including Tucumcari, N.M.,
From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2026
"You can come on the train at Leeds where you bump into people every second, and you get off the train here and there's nobody. There's just scenery."
From BBC • May 1, 2026
Developer Jordan Schnitzer, best known for his vast art collection, has also amassed a string of homes on the West Coast that he values as much for sentiment as scenery.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026
I guess it’s pretty around here—everything looks like those paintings that are just scenery, with nothing actually happening.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
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.
