theater
noun
Simple meaning
a building with a stage and seats for watching performances
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
theeuhterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈθiətɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
countable
A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on.
Drama or performance as a profession or art form.
us
A cinema.
A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.
Any place rising by steps like the seats of a theater.
A lecture theatre.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on.
Used this way, theater is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Formal and ceremonial
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use theater
- “We are going to the community theater tonight for a play.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A theater arranged with seats around at least three sides of the stage.
Any of various lights used in a theater.
A region in which active military operations are in progress.
Plays stressing the irrational or illogical aspects of life, usually to show that modern life is pointless.
The entire land, sea, and air area that may become or is directly involved in war operations.
Someone who assists a performer by providing the next words of a forgotten speech.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Of or relating to the theater.
A stage in a theater on which actors can perform.
A ticket good for admission to a theater.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- ensemblenoun
- premierenoun
- playwrightnoun
- performingnoun
- playhousenoun
- theatrenoun
- seatingnoun
- venuenoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.