theater

plural theaters · alternative theatre

1. UScountableA place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on.

   Synonyms: playhouse

2. UScountableuncountableA region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.

   His grandfather was in the Pacific theater during the war.

   1 more example

   Percy had been too big for the town since he got back from the war. He served in the Pacific theater, behind the lines keeping up the supply chain.

   2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 69

3. UScountableuncountableA lecture theatre.
4. UScountableuncountablemedicineAn operating theatre or locale for human experimentation.

   This man is about to die, get him into theater at once!

5. UScountableuncountableA cinema.

   We sat in the back row of the theater and threw popcorn at the screen.

6. UScountableuncountableDrama or performance as a profession or art form.

   I worked in theater for twenty-five years.

   Synonyms: fabulous invalid

7. UScountableuncountableAny place rising by steps like the seats of a theater.
8. UScountablederogatoryfigurativelyuncountableoften following a noun used attributivelyA conspicuous but unproductive display of action.

   security theater; hygiene theater

   2 more examples

   The Senate confirmation hearings were just theater.

   ACTA proponents rely on claims of a growing piracy and counterfeiting threat. In the absence of credible evidence of the threat or that the measures in ACTA will reduce the threat, ACTA is no more than enforcement theater.

   2012, Andrew Rens, “Enforcement Theater: The Enforcement Agenda and the Institutionalization of Enforcement Theater in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement”, in Suffolk Transnational Law Review, volume 35