| / English Dictionary |
DRAMA
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of being arresting or highly emotional
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("drama" is a kind of...):
emotionalism; emotionality (emotional nature or quality)
Attribute:
dramatic (suitable to or characteristic of drama)
undramatic (lacking dramatic force and quality)
Derivation:
dramatise; dramatize (represent something in a dramatic manner)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The literary genre of works intended for the theater
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("drama" is a kind of...):
genre; literary genre; writing style (a style of expressing yourself in writing)
Domain member category:
tragicomic (of or relating to or characteristic of tragicomedy)
comic (of or relating to or characteristic of comedy)
tragic (of or relating to or characteristic of tragedy)
unappealing; unlikable; unlikeable; unsympathetic ((of characters in literature or drama) tending to evoke antipathetic feelings)
appealing; likable; likeable; sympathetic ((of characters in literature or drama) evoking empathic or sympathetic feelings)
black humor; black humour (the juxtaposition of morbid and farcical elements (in writing or drama) to give a disturbing effect)
drama; dramatic play; play (a dramatic work intended for performance by actors on a stage)
warhorse (a work of art (composition or drama) that is part of the standard repertory but has become hackneyed from much repetition)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drama"):
closet drama (drama more suitable for reading that for performing)
comedy (light and humorous drama with a happy ending)
tragedy (drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity)
Derivation:
dramatic (pertaining to or characteristic of drama)
dramatise (represent something in a dramatic manner)
dramatise (put into dramatic form)
dramatist (someone who writes plays)
dramatize (represent something in a dramatic manner)
dramatize (put into dramatic form)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A dramatic work intended for performance by actors on a stage
Example:
he wrote several plays but only one was produced on Broadway
Synonyms:
drama; dramatic play; play
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("drama" is a kind of...):
dramatic composition; dramatic work (a play for performance on the stage or television or in a movie etc.)
Meronyms (parts of "drama"):
act (a subdivision of a play or opera or ballet)
stage direction (an instruction written as part of the script of a play)
Domain category:
drama (the literary genre of works intended for the theater)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drama"):
Grand Guignol (a play of a macabre or horrific nature)
theater of the absurd (plays stressing the irrational or illogical aspects of life, usually to show that modern life is pointless)
playlet (a short play)
miracle play (a medieval play representing episodes from the life of a saint or martyr)
morality play (an allegorical play popular in the 15th and 16th centuries; characters personified virtues and vices)
mystery play (a medieval play representing episodes from the life of Christ)
Passion play (a play representing the Passion of Christ)
satyr play (an ancient Greek burlesque with a chorus of satyrs)
Derivation:
dramatize (put into dramatic form)
dramatize (represent something in a dramatic manner)
dramatist (someone who writes plays)
dramatise (put into dramatic form)
dramatise (represent something in a dramatic manner)
dramatic (pertaining to or characteristic of drama)
Sense 4
Meaning:
An episode that is turbulent or highly emotional
Synonyms:
drama; dramatic event
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("drama" is a kind of...):
episode (a happening that is distinctive in a series of related events)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drama"):
night terror (an emotional episode (usually in young children) in which the person awakens in terror with feelings of anxiety and fear but is unable to remember any incident that might have provoked those feelings)
Derivation:
dramatic (suitable to or characteristic of drama)
dramatic (sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect)
dramatise (represent something in a dramatic manner)
dramatize (add details to)
dramatize (represent something in a dramatic manner)
Context examples:
We have been privileged to overhear a prehistoric tragedy, the sort of drama which occurred among the reeds upon the border of some Jurassic lagoon, when the greater dragon pinned the lesser among the slime, said Challenger, with more solemnity than I had ever heard in his voice.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Of your return from Plymouth, allowing much of your property to go on to Africa, I will say nothing save that it first informed me that you were one of the factors which had to be taken into account in reconstructing this drama—
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Here is one of the three men whom we had named as possible actors in this drama, and he meets a violent death during the very hours when we know that that drama was being enacted.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
That was our first drama at Hurlstone; but a second one came to drive it from our minds, and it was prefaced by the disgrace and dismissal of butler Brunton.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His love of danger, his intense appreciation of the drama of an adventure—all the more intense for being held tightly in—his consistent view that every peril in life is a form of sport, a fierce game betwixt you and Fate, with Death as a forfeit, made him a wonderful companion at such hours.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
When, therefore, he suddenly announced his intention of setting out for the scene of the drama it was only what I had both expected and hoped for.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then he pictured the solidification, the cooling, the wrinkling which formed the mountains, the steam which turned to water, the slow preparation of the stage upon which was to be played the inexplicable drama of life.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In publishing these short sketches based upon the numerous cases in which my companion’s singular gifts have made us the listeners to, and eventually the actors in, some strange drama, it is only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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