Meaning & use
dramatizer
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who regularly makes events seem more exciting, serious, or dramatic than they really are.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a dramatizer' or 'dramatizers' for more than one.
Patterns
- a dramatizer of something
- call someone a dramatizer
My brother is such a dramatizer that a small scratch becomes a hospital visit.
She's a born dramatizer, always turning a quiet evening into a gripping story.
The paper was accused of being a dramatizer of routine political disputes.
nouncountabletechnical
A writer who changes a book, story, or real events into a form for stage, film, or television.
Grammar: Countable; in this sense it is usually followed by 'of' plus the source work.
Patterns
- the dramatizer of a novel
- a dramatizer for television
The dramatizer of the novel had to cut two whole chapters.
As a dramatizer for radio, he is skilled at turning description into dialogue.
Credits listed her as the dramatizer of the memoir.
Word forms
| plural | dramatizers |
|---|
Common combinations
- a compulsive dramatizer
- He's a compulsive dramatizer who can't tell a story plainly.
- accuse someone of being a dramatizer
- Her friends accused her of being a dramatizer when she described the meeting.
- the dramatizer of a novel
- The dramatizer of the novel kept most of the original dialogue.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exaggerator
- Focuses on making things seem bigger or worse, while 'dramatizer' stresses adding drama and emotion.
- adapter
- Neutral term for someone who rewrites a work for stage or screen; 'dramatizer' is rarer and more literary.
Word family
- dramatize verb
- to present something as a drama or make it seem more dramatic
- dramatization noun
- a stage, film, or TV version of a book or real event
- dramatic adjective
- sudden, striking, or full of strong emotion
Commonly confused: dramatizer or dramatist?
dramatizer vs dramatist
A dramatist writes plays; a dramatizer turns other material into dramatic form or exaggerates events.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'dramatizer' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The second sentence uses 'dramatizer' for someone who exaggerates events. The first describes a playwright, which is 'dramatist'; the third confuses it with 'painter' or 'artist'; the fourth wrongly uses a noun as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dramatizer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.