/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 theatrum 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.