screenplay
Americannoun
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a motion-picture or television scenario.
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Older Use. a motion picture.
noun
Etymology
Origin of screenplay
Explanation
Before a movie can be filmed, a writer has to come up with a screenplay, a written script that describes all the action and every line the actors will speak. How entertaining, thrilling, realistic, or fantastic a movie is depends on many variables, one of the most important being the screenplay. A truly great screenplay includes brilliant dialogue that develops the characters and moves the action forward. TV shows and elaborate video games also require screenplays. Some writers adapt books or older movies into new screenplays, while others come up with entirely original stories for their screenplays.
Vocabulary lists containing screenplay
Academy Awards, List 3
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myPerspectives 7.3
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Introduction to Drama
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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.
The book is flawed by chapter openings in screenplay style, which turn Hepburn’s life into a Grade Z movie.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
While this was part of the original screenplay for “Michael,” The Wall Street Journal reported that the plotline had to be scrubbed due to conditions of the settlement.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026
Anyone showing up for a film replete with big-budget pop spectacle will be thrown for a loop by Lowery’s dialogue-heavy screenplay.
From Salon • Apr. 24, 2026
Gadd was cast as the lead and wrote the screenplay.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Once both agreed, Marvin brought James Baldwin on board to write the script and Arnold Perl to modify the screenplay.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
