| 单词 | theater |
| 释义 | theater /thee"euh teuhr, theeeu"-/, n. 1. a building, part of a building, or outdoor area for housing dramatic presentations, stage entertainments, or motion-picture shows. 2. the audience at a theatrical or motion-picture performance: The theater wept. 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 drama: an actress devoted to the theater. 6. dramatic works collectively, as of literature, a nation, or an author (often prec. by the): the theater of Ibsen. 7. the quality or effectiveness of dramatic performance: good theater; bad theater; pure theater. 8. a place of action; field of operations. 9. a natural formation of land rising by steps or gradations. Also, theatre. [1325-75; ME theatre < L theatrum < Gk théatron seeing place, theater, equiv. to thea-, s. of theâsthai to view + -tron suffix denoting means or place] Syn. 8. arena, site, stage, setting, scene. Pronunciation. THEATER, an early Middle English borrowing from French, originally had its primary stress on the second syllable: Fr. /tay ah"trddeu/. 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"euh teuhr, theeeu"-/. A pronunciation with stress on the second syllable and the /ay/ vowel: /thee ay"teuhr/ or sometimes /thee"ay'teuhr/ is characteristic chiefly of uneducated speech. |
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