theater
Americannoun
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theaters
plural
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a building, part of a building, or outdoor area for housing dramatic performances or stage entertainments, or for showing movies.
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the audience at a theatrical performance or movie.
The whole theater was weeping.
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a theatrical or acting company.
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a room or hall, fitted with tiers of seats rising like steps, used for lectures, surgical demonstrations, etc..
Students crowded into the operating theater.
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the theater, dramatic performances as a branch of art; the field or discipline of staged drama.
an actress devoted to the theater.
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Often the theater dramatic works collectively, as of literature, a nation, or an author.
the theater of Ibsen.
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the quality or effectiveness of dramatic performance: bad theater;
good theater;
bad theater;
pure theater.
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a place of dramatic action, especially during a war.
the Pacific theater during World War II.
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a public display of action or speech that gives a false impression of accomplishing or promising something, merely for the sake of appearances (often used in combination): Public health experts have said that the time and money spent on cleaning may be unnecessary hygiene theater. Forget all his blustering about doing what's best for our city—it's just theater to please his union masters and protect his political base.
Washington D.C.'s Metro transit system has instituted random bag searches, and many travelers are just as unhappy about the security theater on the train as in the airport.
Public health experts have said that the time and money spent on cleaning may be unnecessary hygiene theater.
Companies need to go beyond diversity theater and commit to long-term, concrete metrics for change.
Forget all his blustering about doing what's best for our city—it's just theater to please his union masters and protect his political base.
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a natural formation of land rising by steps or gradations.
Pronunciation
Theater, an early Middle English borrowing from French, originally had its primary stress on the second syllable: . As with many early French borrowings ( beauty, carriage, marriage ), the stress moved to the first syllable, in conformity with a common English pattern of stress, and this pattern remains the standard one for theater today: . A pronunciation with stress on the second syllable and the vowel , as or sometimes is characteristic chiefly of a nonstandard regional pronunciation in the United States that may be perceived as uneducated.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of theater
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English theatre, from Latin theātrum, from Greek théātron “seeing place, theater,” equivalent to theā-, stem of theâsthai “to view” + -tron suffix denoting means or place
Explanation
If you are sitting in a crowd of people watching actors on a stage, you're probably in a theater. If the performance is projected on a large screen, you're in a movie theater. The Greek word for theater (theatron) comes from the verb theasthai, meaning “behold.” You are likely to behold a play or a film inside a theater. If you've dedicated your life to theater, you are probably an actor, director or playwright. Remember when you yelled “fire!” in a crowded theater and got arrested? That wasn't funny.
Vocabulary lists containing theater
Reading: Literature - Drama - Introductory
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The Renaissance and Early Modern European History - Introductory
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Academy Awards, List 5
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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.
See Examples For:
In the dog days of summer, there’s no better place to escape the heat than inside the air-conditioned paradise of a movie theater.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Some of it is theater for the recreationally offended.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
The YA musical drama, which premieres Friday, pays homage to musical theater, unconditional maternal love and the family-hour TV, er, Netflix movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Thursday's event featured La Colmenita, a Cuban children's theater company that was a favorite of Fidel's.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
His heart was hammering loud in his chest, louder than she’d heard it in the theater.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Patterson said he was "grateful" to have a movie that will open in US theaters Friday and delighted that it was with such a stellar talent.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
ATG owns a raft of some of the best-known theaters on Broadway and in London’s West End as well as dozens of other playhouses across the U.S., continental Europe and the U.K.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
With “Olmo,” in theaters Friday, Eimbcke has adapted his career-long interest on the youth’s preoccupations to a story on this side of the Mexico-U.S. border for the first time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
The horror flick, which hit theaters in May, was made in Los Angeles for a budget of $750,000 and has since grossed nearly $475 million worldwide.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
She’d seen this movie, in theaters, no less.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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.
