Showtime

How to spell showtime

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce showtime

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does showtime mean?

1. nounThe scheduled time at which a performance, film, or event begins.
2. nounThe point at which someone must finally act, perform, or prove themselves.

Showtime in a sentence

• The ushers asked everyone to take their seats before showtime.

• After months of practice, it was finally showtime for the cast.

• The cinema lists showtime for each film on the foyer screen.

• The coach told the players that the cup final would be showtime for them.

Where does showtime come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, built from two very old native words. 'Show' descends from the Old English sceawian, which originally meant 'to look at' or 'to inspect' rather than 'to display', and only later shifted toward the modern sense of putting something on view. 'Time' comes from the Old English tima, a general word for a stretch or point of duration. The two were joined in the entertainment world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to name the scheduled moment when a performance begins. From the theatre and cinema it spread into casual speech as an exclamation marking the instant when action must start, and because both halves are spelled exactly as they sound, the only real trap is remembering it is written as one solid word.

How the word is built

• show (a performance or display)
• time (a point or period)