different between literature vs theater

English

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Alternative forms

• literatuer (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English literature, from Old French littérature, from Latin literatura or litteratura, from littera (“letter”), from Etruscan, from Ancient Greek ??????? (diphthér?, “tablet”). Displaced native Old English b?ccræft.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l?.t?.??.t??(?)/, /?l?.t??.t??(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?l?.t?.?.t??/, /?l?.t?.?.t??/, /?l?.t???.t??/, /?l?.t?.t??/
• (Midwestern US) IPA^(key): /?l?.t?.t??/

Noun

literature (usually uncountable, plural literatures)

1. The body of all written works.
2. The collected creative writing of a nation, people, group, or culture.
3. (usually preceded by the) All the papers, treatises, etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject.

   • The obvious question to ask at this point is: ‘Why posit the existence of a set of Thematic Relations (THEME, AGENT, INSTRUMENT, etc.) distinct from constituent structure relations?? The answer given in the relevant literature is that a variety of linguistic phenomena can be accounted for in a more principled way in terms of Thematic Functions than in terms of constituent structure relations.
4. Written fiction of a high standard.

   However, even “literary” science fiction rarely qualifies as literature, because it treats characters as sets of traits rather than as fully realized human beings with unique life stories. —Adam Cadre, 2008

Derived terms

Meronyms

• See also Thesaurus:literature

Related terms

• letter
• literal
• literacy
• literate
• literary

Translations

Further reading

• "literature" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 183.

Anagrams

• literateur, literatuer

English

Alternative forms

• theatre (standard spelling in all English-speaking countries that use British spelling)

Etymology

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek ??????? (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from ??????? (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”). Doublet of tiatr.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??i(?)t?/, sometimes /????.t?/
• (Canada, Southern American English) IPA^(key): /??i(?)t?/, /??i.e?.t?/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /??i??.t?/, /????.t?/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /??i?t?/, [??i??t?], [??i????]

Noun

theater (countable and uncountable, plural theaters) (American spelling)

1. A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on.
2. A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.

3. A lecture theatre.
4. (medicine) An operating theatre or locale for human experimentation.

5. (US) A cinema.

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

7. Any place rising by steps like the seats of a theater.

Usage notes

• The spelling theatre is the main spelling in British English, with theater being rare.
• In United States English, theater accounts for about 80 percent of usage in the major corpus of usage, COCA.
• Among American theatre professionals, there is some usage of the two spellings in order to differentiate between the location theater (as in definitions 1–5) and the art-form theatre (definition 6). A variant of this differentiation is the usage of theatre for things relating to live performances (as in definitions 1 and 6) with theater being used for all other uses.

Synonyms

• fabulous invalid

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of theatre

Anagrams

• hat tree, hattree, teareth, tethera, theatre, thereat

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French théâtre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek ??????? (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from ??????? (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /te??(j)a?t?r/
• Hyphenation: the?a?ter
• Rhymes: -a?t?r

Noun

theater n (plural theaters, diminutive theatertje n)

1. theater (US), theatre (Commonwealth): either drama, the art form, or a drama theater (building)

Synonyms

• schouwburg

Derived terms

• danstheater
• theaterkunst
• volkstheater

Descendants

• Afrikaans: teater
• ? Indonesian: teater

Middle English

Alternative forms

• theatre, teatre, theatyr, theatere

Etymology

From Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek ??????? (théatron).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??at?r/, /?t???a?t?r/

Noun

theater

1. A theatre open to the sky; an amphitheatre.
2. Any stage which plays and performances take place at.
3. (rare) A whorehouse.

Descendants

• English: theater, theatre
• Scots: theatre

References

• “th????tre, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-19.