theater

noun

1. a building, part of a building, or outdoor area for housing dramatic presentations, stage entertainments, or motion-picture shows.
2. the audience at a theatrical or motion-picture performance: The theater wept.
3. a theatrical or acting company.
4. a room or hall, fitted with tiers of seats rising like steps, used for lectures, surgical demonstrations, etc.: Students crowded into the operating theater.
5. the theater, dramatic performances as a branch of art; the drama: an actress devoted to the theater.
6. dramatic works collectively, as of literature, a nation, or an author (often preceded by the): the theater of Ibsen.
7. the quality or effectiveness of dramatic performance: good theater; bad theater; pure theater.
8. a place of action; field of operations.
9. a natural formation of land rising by steps or gradations.

n.late 14c., “open air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles,” from Old French theatre (12c.), from Latin theatrum, from Greek theatron “theater,” literally “place for viewing,” from theasthai “to behold” (cf. thea “a view,” theates “spectator”) + -tron, suffix denoting place. Meaning “building where plays are shown” (1570s) was transferred to that of “plays, writing, production, the stage” (1660s). Spelling with -re prevailed in Britain after c.1700, but American English retained or revived the older spelling in -er. Generic sense of “place of action” is from 1580s; especially “region where war is being fought” (1914). The Theatre of the Absurd strives to express its sense of the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought. [M. Esslin, “Theatre of the Absurd,” 1961]