screenwriter
Americannoun
-
screenwriters
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of screenwriter
Explanation
Someone who writes movie scripts or screenplays is called a screenwriter. A novelist whose book is being made into a film might be hired to be the screenwriter. Every movie has a script, with lines for the actors to speak and directions for certain camera shots and scene changes. The person who writes the screenplay is the screenwriter. Some big-budget Hollywood films might have several screenwriters who collaborate. The word's been used since the 1920s, from the sense of screen that means "cinema world," or "surface on which a movie is projected."
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.
See Examples For:
“Coyote vs. Acme” director Dave Green and screenwriter Samy Burch didn’t expect this kind of reaction, but they were trying to “uncover shades to these characters that we had never known before,” Green said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
Author and screenwriter Juno Dawson says viewers have begun to notice a "pattern".
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
“Treasure Island,” written by “Adolescence” screenwriter Jack Thorne and starring Hugh Jackman, will begin filming in November.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The 83-year-old author and screenwriter told Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court she needed her car to meet criminals and sources for research into her next works of fiction.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
In the late 1960s, the screenwriter Norman Lear produced a television sitcom pilot for a show called All in the Family.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
BBC News spoke to Bailey, screenwriters, TV critics and former Drag Race contestants about the move and what it means for on-screen representation.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Murdoch, his business empire and his feuds with his six children have become rich pickings for authors, screenwriters and directors.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
The screenwriters are Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, adapting what was originally a Spanish play, then a movie called “The People Upstairs,” both by Cesc Gay.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
These things are hilarious because screenwriters Christina Friel and Connor Wright clearly approached the script by trying to make everything legitimately funny, instead of assuming that provocation immediately equates to humor.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
She did her graduate work at NYU, and for three weeks the four of us stayed in the city and socialized with her former teachers and classmates—novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, poets.
From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven
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.
