theater
or the·a·tre
[ thee-uh-ter, theeuh- ]
/ ˈθi ə tər, ˈθiə- /
noun
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What does "scattergood" mean?
a person who acts as though he or she knows everything and who dismisses the opinions, comments, or suggestions of others.
a person who spends possessions or money extravagantly or wastefully; spendthrift.
a well-intentioned but naive and often ineffectual social or political reformer.
TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUTOrigin 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
pronunciation note for theater
Theater, an early Middle English borrowing from French, originally had its primary stress on the second syllable: [French tey-ah-truh]. /French teɪˈɑ trə/. 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: [thee-uh-ter]. /ˈθi ə tər/. A pronunciation with stress on the second syllable and the vowel [ey], /eɪ/, as [thee-ey-ter] /θiˈeɪ tər/ or sometimes [thee-ey-ter] /ˈθiˌeɪ tər/ is characteristic chiefly of a nonstandard regional pronunciation in the United States that may be perceived as uneducated.
OTHER WORDS FROM theater
non·the·a·ter, adjectivepre·the·a·ter, adjectiveWords nearby theater
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020