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theatre

noun

Simple meaning

a building with a stage and seats for watching performances

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

theeuhter

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US device voice
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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. chiefly australiacanadanew zealanduk

    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.

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, theatre is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Keen and enthusiastic
Usage feel
Warm and expressive

Where it naturally appears

  • Music/performance
  • Arts writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Place / building

repertory theatre

Region

operating theatre

Other combinations

abbey theatrenew theatreamerican theatretheatre companyart theatrecourt theatre

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • theatricaladjectiveDerived adjective

    Related to 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.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • theatre of warnounCompound term

    The entire land, sea, and air area that may become or is directly involved in war operations.

  • theatre stagenounCompound term

    A stage in a theater on which actors can perform.

  • theatre ticketnounCompound term

    A ticket good for admission to a theater.

  • theatre directornounCompound term

    Someone who supervises the actors and directs the action in the production of a show.

  • theatre of operationsnounCompound term

    A region in which active military operations are in progress.

  • theatre curtainnounCompound term

    A hanging cloth that conceals the stage from the view of the audience.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: place or building

house

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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.