Drama

How to spell drama

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce drama

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does drama mean?

1. nounA serious play or a category of stage, film, and television works that portray human conflict and emotion.
2. nounAn exciting, emotional, or turbulent situation in real life, often involving conflict.

Drama in a sentence

• She studied drama at university before joining a touring theatre company.

• After months of office drama, the team finally agreed to work together.

• The streaming service has a strong selection of crime drama and thrillers.

• He wanted a quiet holiday with no stress and no drama.

Where does drama come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Drama comes directly from the Greek word drama, which literally meant 'a deed' or 'an action', and by extension a thing done and performed on stage. It was built on the verb dran, meaning 'to do' or 'to act', so at root a drama is simply something acted out rather than merely told. The word passed into Late Latin as drama and then into English in the late 1500s, when the playhouses of London were flourishing and a precise term for staged works was useful. Over time the meaning widened beyond the theatre to cover any vivid or emotionally charged series of events, which is why we now speak of real-life drama as readily as a stage drama. A close relative from the same dran root is 'drastic', literally 'acting strongly', a handy reminder that the word is fundamentally about action.

How the word is built

• dram- (from Greek drama: a deed, an action performed on stage)
• -a (noun ending carried over from Greek)