screenwriter
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
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.
Grover founded the Giggle for Girls app in 2020 in response to online abuse by men during her time as a screenwriter in Hollywood.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
The Good Will Hunting screenwriter said in 2007 that a flood in his New York flat led to his statue's disappearance.
From BBC • May 1, 2026
It’s not because director Antoine Fuqua’s style is hackneyed, or that screenwriter John Logan’s script has all the dramatic tension of a glass of still water — though both of those things are true, too.
From Salon • Apr. 25, 2026
The actor, who was born and raised in Illinois, developed the story with “Nobody” screenwriter Derek Kolstad, best known for creating the “John Wick” franchise, and the two quickly bonded over a shared sensibility.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
Amelia is the director and lead vocal talent, Serenity is the screenwriter and side vocals, and I’m the animator.
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
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.
