Meanings
- People have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre.
We live in a civilised society, and in a civilised society everyone is an actor – film, TV, drama, crosstalk, sketch – we're all acting. Don't they say that all the world's a stage?
2014, Mo Yan, translated by Howard Goldblatt, Frog, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN4 more examples
But ſtill, perhaps, 'tis ſomewhat new you'll ſay, / For School-Boys to attempt to act a Play. / Why ſhould the Attempt ſurprize! it ſuits our Age, / And more you know, that all the World's a Stage. / Of general Uſe indeed muſt ſeem this Art, / Since every Man was born to act his Part.
1766 May, “An Occasional Prologue and Epilogue, Compos'd for the Agreeable Surprize, a Comedy, Translated from the Comic Pieces of Mons[ieur] de Marivaux, and of the French Academy; and Perform'd, with Universal Applause, by the Young Gentlemen of Mr. Rule's Academy at Islington, for Whitsuntide, 1766, in the Presence of their Parents and Friends”, in The Jester's Magazine: Or, The Monthly Merry-maker, London: Printed and sold by S. Bladon, in Pater-noster-Row; J. Williams, in Fleet-Street; and J. Kingman, near the Royal-Exchange, published 1767, →OCLC, page 240Now we meet singers who depict Earth, Moon, Bread, and a pair of actors, played gamely by William Redfield and Rae Allen, who were meant to promote the notion that all the world's a stage. […] The saying that all the world's a stage is true enough. But it doesn't follow conversely that the stage is the world. The stage is more demanding than the world, and its rules are even harsher. As Dude proves, it can't get by on good intentions.
1972 November 17, Tom Prideaux, “All Heart and No Place to Go: Dude [theater review]”, in LIFE, volume 73, number 20, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., →ISSN, page 30"Joey, my husband, was torn between the stage and the law," Mari's mother said. "I don't know which one won and which lost." / "My dear, you know that all the world's a stage. Boards or bench. I'll get the drinks."
2005, R. J. Burke, The Cigarette Killer: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 249This is not simply to rehash the rather meaningless notion that all human behaviour is performance, or even that ‘all the world’s a stage’, but instead to suggest that there is something in the appearing that takes place in the theatre that seems capable of activating in an audience a feeling of our compromised, alienated participation in the political and economic relations that make us appear to be who we are.
2006, Nicholas [Peter] Ridout, “Embarrassment: The Predicament of the Audience”, in Stage Fright, Animals, and Other Theatrical Problems (Theatre and Performance Theory), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 93–94
Origin
Coined by the English playwright William Shakespeare (baptized 1564; died 1616) from the beginning of a monologue delivered by the character Jaques in Act II, scene vii, of the play As You Like It, believed to have been written in 1599: “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women, meerly Players; […]”.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 人生如戲，戲如人生 /人生如戏, 戏如人生
- 人生如戲，戲如人生 /人生如戏people have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
- 戏如人生 (rénshēng rú xì, xì rú rénshēng)people have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
Dutch de wereld is een schouwtoneel
- de wereld is een schouwtoneelpeople have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
Finnish koko maailma on näyttämö
- koko maailma on näyttämöpeople have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
French le monde entier est un théâtre
- le monde entier est un théâtrepeople have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
Hungarian színház az egész világ
- színház az egész világpeople have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
Italian tutto il mondo è paese
- tutto il mondo è paesepeople have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
Russian весь мир - теа́тр, а лю́ди в нём актёры
- весь мир - теа́тр, а лю́ди в нём актёры (vesʹ mir - teátr, a ljúdi v njom aktjóry)people have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre
Cite this entry
all the world's a stage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/all%20the%20world's%20a%20stage
“all the world's a stage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/all%20the%20world's%20a%20stage. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “all the world's a stage,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/all%20the%20world's%20a%20stage.
Source: all the world's a stage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.