Library / English Dictionary

PLAYWRIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who writes plays

Synonyms:

dramatist; playwright

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("playwright" is a kind of...):

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Instance hyponyms:

Edmond Rostand; Rostand (French dramatist and poet whose play immortalized Cyrano de Bergerac (1868-1918))

Esme Stuart Lennox Robinson; Lennox Robinson; Robinson (Irish playwright and theater manager in Dublin (1886-1958))

Elmer Leopold Rice; Elmer Reizenstein; Elmer Rice; Rice (United States playwright (1892-1967))

Rattigan; Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan; Terence Rattigan (British playwright (1911-1977))

Jean Baptiste Racine; Jean Racine; Racine (French advocate of Jansenism; tragedian who based his works on Greek and Roman themes (1639-1699))

Plautus; Titus Maccius Plautus (comic dramatist of ancient Rome (253?-184 BC))

George Dibdin-Pitt; George Dibdin Pitt; George Pitt; Pitt (a British playwright who created the fictional character Sweeney Todd (1799-1855))

Luigi Pirandello; Pirandello (Italian novelist and playwright (1867-1936))

Harold Pinter; Pinter (English dramatist whose plays are characterized by silences and the use of inaction (born in 1930))

John James Osborne; John Osborne; Osborne (English playwright (1929-1994))

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill; Eugene O'Neill; O'Neill (United States playwright (1888-1953))

Clifford Odets; Odets (United States playwright (1906-1963))

O'Casey; Sean O'Casey (Irish playwright (1880-1964))

Ferenc Molnar; Molnar (Hungarian playwright (1878-1952))

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin; Moliere (French author of sophisticated comedies (1622-1673))

Arthur Miller; Miller (United States playwright (1915-2005))

Middleton; Thomas Middleton (English playwright and pamphleteer (1570-1627))

Menander (comic dramatist of ancient Greece (342-292 BC))

John Marstan; Marstan (English playwright (1575-1634))

Christopher Marlowe; Marlowe (English poet and playwright who introduced blank verse as a form of dramatic expression; was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl (1564-1593))

David Mamet; Mamet (United States playwright (born in 1947))

Count Maurice Maeterlinck; Maeterlinck (Belgian playwright (1862-1949))

Clare Booth Luce; Luce (United States playwright and public official (1902-1987))

W. B. Yeats; William Butler Yeats; Yeats (Irish poet and dramatist (1865-1939))

William Wycherley; Wycherley (English playwright noted for his humorous and satirical plays (1640-1716))

Tennessee Williams; Thomas Lanier Williams; Williams (United States playwright (1911-1983))

Thornton Niven Wilder; Thornton Wilder; Wilder (United States writer and dramatist (1897-1975))

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde; Oscar Wilde; Wilde (Irish writer and wit (1854-1900))

John Webster; Webster (English playwright (1580-1625))

Lope de Vega; Lope Felix de Vega Carpio; Vega (prolific Spanish playwright (1562-1635))

Peter Alexander Ustinov; Sir Peter Ustinov; Ustinov (British actor and playwright (1921-2004))

Gabriel Tellez; Tirso de Molina (Spanish dramatist who wrote the first dramatic treatment of the legend of Don Juan (1571-1648))

Publius Terentius Afer; Terence (dramatist of ancient Rome (born in Greece) whose comedies were based on works by Menander (190?-159 BC))

Edmund John Millington Synge; J. M. Synge; John Millington Synge; Synge (Irish poet and playwright whose plays are based on rural Irish life (1871-1909))

August Strindberg; Johan August Strindberg; Strindberg (Swedish dramatist and novelist (1849-1912))

Sir Tom Stoppard; Stoppard; Thomas Straussler; Tom Stoppard (British dramatist (born in Czechoslovakia in 1937))

Sophocles (one of the great tragedians of ancient Greece (496-406 BC))

Marvin Neil Simon; Neil Simon; Simon (United States playwright noted for light comedies (born in 1927))

Robert Emmet Sherwood; Sherwood (United States playwright (1896-1955))

Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Sheridan (Irish playwright remembered for his satirical comedies of manners (1751-1816))

Sam Shepard; Shepard (United States author of surrealistic allegorical plays (born in 1943))

G. B. Shaw; George Bernard Shaw; Shaw (British playwright (born in Ireland); founder of the Fabian Society (1856-1950))

Bard of Avon; Shakespeare; Shakspere; William Shakespeare; William Shakspere (English poet and dramatist considered one of the greatest English writers (1564-1616))

Lucius Annaeus Seneca; Seneca (Roman statesman and philosopher who was an advisor to Nero; his nine extant tragedies are modeled on Greek tragedies (circa 4 BC - 65 AD))

Augustin Eugene Scribe; Scribe (French playwright (1791-1861))

Jean-Paul Sartre; Sartre (French writer and existentialist philosopher (1905-1980))

Fletcher; John Fletcher (prolific English dramatist who collaborated with Francis Beaumont and many other dramatists (1579-1625))

Euripides (one of the greatest tragic dramatists of ancient Greece (480-406 BC))

Eliot; T. S. Eliot; Thomas Stearns Eliot (British poet (born in the United States) who won the Nobel prize for literature; his plays are outstanding examples of modern verse drama (1888-1965))

Dryden; John Dryden (the outstanding poet and dramatist of the Restoration (1631-1700))

Decker; Dekker; Thomas Decker; Thomas Dekker (English dramatist and pamphleteer (1572-1632))

Cyrano de Bergerac; Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (a French soldier and dramatist remembered chiefly for fighting many duels (often over the size of his nose); was immortalized in 1897 in a play by Edmond Rostand (1619-1655))

Crouse; Russel Crouse (United States playwright (1893-1966))

Coward; Noel Coward; Sir Noel Pierce Coward (English dramatist and actor and composer noted for his witty and sophisticated comedies (1899-1973))

Corneille; Pierre Corneille (French tragic dramatist whose plays treat grand moral themes in elegant verse (1606-1684))

Congreve; William Congreve (English playwright remembered for his comedies (1670-1729))

Anton Chekhov; Anton Chekov; Anton Pavlovich Chekhov; Anton Pavlovich Chekov; Chekhov; Chekov (Russian dramatist whose plays are concerned with the difficulty of communication between people (1860-1904))

Cervantes; Cervantes Saavedra; Miguel de Cervantes; Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish writer best remembered for 'Don Quixote' which satirizes chivalry and influenced the development of the novel form (1547-1616))

Capek; Karel Capek (Czech writer who introduced the word 'robot' into the English language (1890-1938))

Calderon; Calderon de la Barca; Pedro Calderon de la Barca (Spanish poet and dramatist considered one of the great Spanish writers (1600-1681))

Bertolt Brecht; Brecht (German dramatist and poet who developed a style of epic theater (1898-1956))

Beckett; Samuel Beckett (a playwright and novelist (born in Ireland) who lived in France; wrote plays for the theater of the absurd (1906-1989))

Beaumont; Francis Beaumont (English dramatist who collaborated with John Fletcher (1584-1616))

Barrie; J. M. Barrie; James Barrie; James Matthew Barrie; Sir James Matthew Barrie (Scottish dramatist and novelist; created Peter Pan (1860-1937))

Aristophanes (an ancient Greek dramatist remembered for his comedies (448-380 BC))

Anouilh; Jean Anouilh (French dramatist noted for his reinterpretations of Greek myths (1910-1987))

Anderson; Maxwell Anderson (United States dramatist (1888-1959))

Albee; Edward Albee; Edward Franklin Albeen (United States dramatist (1928-))

Aeschylus (Greek tragedian; the father of Greek tragic drama (525-456 BC))

Howard Lindsay; Lindsay (United States playwright who collaborated with Russel Crouse on several musicals (1889-1931))

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing; Lessing (German playwright and leader of the Enlightenment (1729-1781))

Kid; Kyd; Thomas Kid; Thomas Kyd (English dramatist (1558-1594))

Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist; Heinrich von Kleist; Kleist (German dramatist whose works concern people torn between reason and emotion (1777-1811))

George S. Kaufman; George Simon Kaufman; Kaufman (United States playwright who collaborated with many other writers including Moss Hart (1889-1961))

Ben Jonson; Benjamin Jonson; Jonson (English dramatist and poet who was the first real poet laureate of England (1572-1637))

Eugene Ionesco; Ionesco (French dramatist (born in Romania) who was a leading exponent of the theater of the absurd (1912-1994))

Inge; William Inge (United States playwright (1913-1973))

Henrik Ibsen; Henrik Johan Ibsen; Ibsen (realistic Norwegian author who wrote plays on social and political themes (1828-1906))

Hugo; Victor-Marie Hugo; Victor Hugo (French poet and novelist and dramatist; leader of the romantic movement in France (1802-1885))

Hellman; Lillian Hellman (United States playwright; her plays were often indictments of injustice (1905-1984))

Christian Friedrich Hebbel; Friedrich Hebbel; Hebbel (German dramatist (1813-1863))

Havel; Vaclav Havel (Czech dramatist and statesman whose plays opposed totalitarianism and who served as president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and president of the Czech Republic since 1993 (born in 1936))

Hart; Moss Hart (United States playwright who collaborated with George S. Kaufman (1904-1961))

Granville-Barker; Harley Granville-Barker (English actor and dramatist and critic and director noted for his productions of Shakespearean plays (1877-1946))

Carlo Goldoni; Goldoni (prolific Italian dramatist (1707-1793))

Goethe; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet and novelist and dramatist who lived in Weimar (1749-1832))

Giraudoux; Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux; Jean Giraudoux (French novelist and dramatist whose plays were reinterpretations of Greek myths (1882-1944))

Andre Gide; Andre Paul Guillaume Gide; Gide (French author and dramatist who is regarded as the father of modern French literature (1869-1951))

Genet; Jean Genet (French writer of novels and dramas for the theater of the absurd (1910-1986))

Frederico Garcia Lorca; Garcia Lorca; Lorca (Spanish poet and dramatist who was shot dead by Franco's soldiers soon after the start of the Spanish Civil War (1898-1936))

Athol Fugard; Fugard (South African playwright whose plays feature the racial tensions in South Africa during apartheid (born in 1932))

Christopher Fry; Fry (English dramatist noted for his comic verse dramas (born 1907))

Credits