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moving-picture show

moving-picture show

1 5.5
A show that tells a story with moving images and sound like a movie
  • noun
  • /ˈmuːvɪŋ ˈpɪktʃər ʃoʊ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : película
  • My friends and I lined up to buy tickets for the latest moving-picture show in town.
  • see a moving-picture show

Examples

  • It worked well as a sort of 'moving picture show,' a place where I could expound on what the kids and I watched on Disney Channel that day, or my top five animated movies," she says.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Take them to see the moving picture show at the People's Theater and don't you dare come back until the picture is over.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Nobody is going to give you any money to spend on moving-picture shows.

  • - To a moving-picture show.

  • ♫ And when I go to see, A moving picture show

  • So we trouped down to the movie, hurrying to get there because we couldn't imagine what it might be like to see a moving picture show.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • As biologist Daniel Botkin has argued, the natural world is not "a Kodachrome still-life," but rather "a moving picture show," ever-changing and, at times, completely random.

    Blog text (26)
  • And painting, connected as it was to a long tradition of craftsmanship and handwork, stood opposed to the newer urban entertainments, like the moving-picture show, that were delivered by mechanical means.

    Academic text (2011)
  • We went to the cinema to enjoy a fantastic moving-picture show together.

  • Last night, we watched an old moving-picture show that made us laugh and cry.

Synonyms

movie
vsmoving-picture show
  • US
1.0

A story told with moving pictures on a screen

refers to that same storytelling entertainment without mentioning venue
film
vsmoving-picture show
1.0

A story shown as moving images in a cinema or on screen

covers the same presentation but focuses on the entertainment event itself
picture
vsmoving-picture show
  • Archaic
691 7.7

A movie shown on a screen in a theatre or at home

is the modern descriptive phrase for that same entertainment form
cinema
vsmoving-picture show
99 1.1

The art of making and showing films

is about a single entertainment event rather than the whole medium
motion picture
vsmoving-picture show
83 3.0

A story that uses moving images and sound, like a movie

is the same entertainment form described more generally in the key
flick
vsmoving-picture show
  • Informal
81 4.1

A casual word for a movie you watch at a cinema

is the neutral descriptive term for that same entertainment
pic
vsmoving-picture show
  • Informal
16 8.1

A movie shown in a cinema or on screen

is the fuller descriptive phrase for that same entertainment event
picture show
vsmoving-picture show
  • Archaic
10 2.5

A film shown in a cinema for people to watch

is the broader form encompassing such individual public screenings
moving picture
vsmoving-picture show
8 3.5

A movie shown on a screen that tells a story

names the same kind of entertainment using the key's more formal phrase
motion-picture show
vsmoving-picture show
2.9

A public show where moving pictures and sound tell a story, like a film at a cinema

has identical sense but is expressed with a different name form

Antonyms

still
  • Jargon
16 5.2

A photo from a film or video used to promote the movie

Surface Forms

Morphology

moving-picture + show

The phrase is compositionally clear: a 'moving picture' is a picture that moves (i.e. a film) and 'show' denotes an entertainment event, so a 'moving-picture show' is a show of moving pictures (a movie). This structure follows ordinary English compounding and is cross-linguistically obvious, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase moving-picture show comes from early entertainment when a quick series of still pictures was shown so they seemed to be moving. That's why the phrase means a 'film' or 'movie' shown on a screen.