Meaning & use
Photoplay
Last updated
An early 20th-century term for a motion picture, or the script written for one.
See it in a sentence
The silent-era magazine reviewed the latest photoplay showing at the downtown theater.
The studio hired a novelist to adapt her book into a photoplay.
A note on using this word
"Photoplay" was common film industry terminology in the silent-film era, surviving today mainly in the title of vintage magazines like Photoplay.
Words with a similar meaning
screenplaymotion picture
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Photoplay”, then compare your use with the examples above.
Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.