the|a|ter

the|a|ter «THEE uh tuhr», noun.

1. a place where plays or motion pictures are shown.

2. the audience; house.

3. a place that looks like a theater in its arrangement of seats: »

The surgeon performed an operation before the medical students in the operating theater.

4. a natural formation or other place suggesting a theater, such as a bowllike indentation of the ground with naturally terraced sides.

5. Figurative. a place of action: »

Europe was the theater of the First World War. Politicians are actors in the theater of public life.

6. a) plays; writing, acting in, or producing plays; drama; the stage: »

He was interested in the theater and tried to write plays himself.

b) a play, situation, dialogue, or part considered as to its effectiveness on the stage: »

This scene is bad theater.

Also, theatre.

╂[< Latin theātrum < Greek théātron < theâsthai to behold < théā a view]

Usage Theater is the preferred American spelling, but theatre is very commonly used in the names of theater houses.