Meanings
- chiefly preceded by the definite articlebroadcastingThe art of making motion pictures; filmmaking; cinema.First known use 1920s
Georges Charensol's Panorama du cinema, originally published in 1927, […] was the bible of devotees of the seventh art.
1948, Jacques Queval, “Three French Histories of Film [book reviews]”, in Hollywood Quarterly, volume 3, number 4, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 454, column 22 more examples
Because of the inherent interdisciplinarity of studying film—once called, appositely, the "seventh art"—film studies was among the first disciplines to embrace such theories and methodologies as feminism, semiotics, and structuralism.
2004 spring, Barry Keith Grant, “Diversity or Dilution? Thoughts on Film Studies and the SCMS [Society for Cinema and Media Studies]”, in Jon Lewis, editor, Cinema Journal: The Journal of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, volume 43, number 3, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 90With some 40,000 professionals in attendance, Cannes is the world's largest annual convention, and a yearly thermometer for the temperature of the seventh art.
2008 May 14, Richard_Corliss, Mary Corliss, “Can Cannes still Do It?”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 May 2008
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Italiansettima arte
- Englishseventh art
Calque of Italian settima arte, which was coined by the Italian film theoretician Ricciotto Canudo (1877–1923) in 1921, considering filmmaking to be a new art combining the six previous arts of architecture, sculpture, painting, music, dance, and poetry. Canudo had previously used the term sesta arte (literally “sixth art”) to describe filmmaking around 1911 when he did not include dance in the set of preceding arts.
More words from Italian
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish seitsemäs taide, seitsemäs taiteenlaji
- seitsemäs taideart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
- seitsemäs taiteenlajiart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
French septième art
- septième artart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
Italian settima arte
- settima arteart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
Polish filmoznawstwo
- filmoznawstwoart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
Portuguese sétima arte
- sétima arteart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
Spanish séptimo arte
- séptimo arteart of making motion pictures — see also filmmaking
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with seventh art
Cite this entry
seventh art. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/seventh%20art
“seventh art.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/seventh%20art. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “seventh art,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/seventh%20art.
Source: seventh art on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.