theater

Or the·a·tre

[thee-uh-ter, theeuh-]

noun

1. a building, part of a building, or outdoor area for housing dramatic performances or stage entertainments, or for showing movies.

2. the audience at a theatrical performance or movie.

   The whole theater was weeping.

3. a theatrical or acting company.

4. a room or hall, fitted with tiers of seats rising like steps, used for lectures, surgical demonstrations, etc..

   Students crowded into the operating theater.

5. the theater, dramatic performances as a branch of art; the field or discipline of staged drama.

   an actress devoted to the theater.

6. Often the theater dramatic works collectively, as of literature, a nation, or an author.

   the theater of Ibsen.

7. the quality or effectiveness of dramatic performance: bad theater;

   good theater;

   bad theater;

   pure theater.

8. a place of dramatic action, especially during a war.

   the Pacific theater during World War II.

   Synonyms: stage, site, arena

9. 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.

10. a natural formation of land rising by steps or gradations.

Pronunciation Note

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

• nontheater adjective
• pretheater adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of theater¹

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

Example Sentences

They are everyday people who have fallen on the wrong side of the “friends and enemies” distinction that animates Trumpism and its theater of cruelty.

Read more on Salon

The most artistically vibrant theaters in Los Angeles and beyond are a proving ground for actors, where even stars such as Tom Hanks and Annette Bening turn up on stage.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

This year the 20th Century label is releasing a handful of movies in theaters.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

That film, now playing in theaters and coming soon to Prime Video, will widen the scope and reach of their artistry.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Even in the most wholesome times in his life, as a little league baseball player and school theater kid, he would get a similar “butterfly in the stomach feeling” from the performance of it all.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• amphitheater 
• arena 
• auditorium 
• cinema 
• concert hall www.thesaurus.com
• drama 
• hall 
• house 
• movie 
• movie house www.thesaurus.com
• opera house 
• playhouse 
• room 
• scene 
• site 
• theatre