Meaning & use
lecture theater
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Meaning
nouncountableAmerican
A large room with rows of seats, used for teaching classes at a college or university.
Grammar: Countable: say a lecture theater or two lecture theaters.
Patterns
- a lecture theater in a building
- hold a class in a lecture theater
The professor's first class was held in a huge lecture theater.
Students filled the lecture theater ten minutes before the exam.
We got lost looking for lecture theater B on the second floor.
Word forms
| plural | lecture theaters |
|---|
Common combinations
- a packed lecture theater
- The talk drew a packed lecture theater.
- book a lecture theater
- The department booked a lecture theater for the guest speaker.
- the back of the lecture theater
- He always sat at the back of the lecture theater.
- a lecture theater seat
- There were no free lecture theater seats left.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lecture hall
- The usual British term for the same kind of room; Americans more often say lecture theater.
- auditorium
- A larger public hall for events and performances, not mainly for everyday classes.
Word family
Commonly confused: lecture theater or theater?
lecture theater vs theater
On its own, theater usually means a place for plays and films; the compound lecture theater is only for teaching rooms.
Practice
Which sentence uses "lecture theater" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A lecture theater is a teaching room, so a class meeting there fits. A musical belongs in a theater or auditorium, and parking or cooking are unrelated activities.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lecture theater”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.