Scenes

How to spell scenes

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce scenes

What does scenes mean?

1. nounPlaces, settings, or sequences of action, as in a play, film, or a view of something.
2. nounPublic displays of strong, often embarrassing, emotion or commotion.

Scenes in a sentence

• The director reshot two of the opening scenes the next morning.

• He hated making scenes in restaurants when the service was slow.

• The documentary showed peaceful scenes of the countryside at dawn.

• The couple were known for the dramatic scenes they caused at family gatherings.

Where does scenes come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is the plural of 'scene', which traces back to the Greek word skene, originally meaning the wooden hut or tent set up behind the playing area of a theatre, where actors changed costume and from which painted backdrops were hung. From that staging structure the sense broadened to mean the backdrop itself, and then the action played out in front of it. The Romans adopted the word as scaena or scena, the place where a play unfolds, and from there it passed into French as scene before entering English in the 1500s. The 'sc' spelling preserves the Latin and Greek origin, and the silent 'c' is exactly what trips writers up, since the word is pronounced as if it began with a simple 's'. Over time the meaning widened from theatrical settings to any view, place of action, or emotional outburst.

How the word is built

• scen- (from Greek skene: stage, tent)
• -e
• -s (plural)