Meanings
plural picture shows
- datedSynonym of movie.
His family was from Maycomb County originally, his mother worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it.
1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLCSynonyms: movie
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of movie.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna form of entertainment that enacts a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Ellipsis of motion-picture show. Although the collocation per se (noun adjunct + noun) predates motion pictures, previously having referred occasionally to the display of collections of illustrations, its status as a compound noun comes from its "motion picture" sense.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
picture show. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/picture%20show
“picture show.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/picture%20show. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “picture show,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/picture%20show.
Source: picture show on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.