cinema
Pluralcinemas
- 1Films considered as a whole or as an art form, with their own techniques, history, and traditions, as in 'independent cinema' or 'the language of cinema'.
Few directors understood the language of cinema as well as she did.
After the war, Europe's national cinemas each developed a style of their own.
UsageUsually no article for the art, study cinema, but national cinemas or Italian cinema for a country's films.
Similarfilm, filmmaking, movies
- 2A theater or building where movies are shown to an audience.
The new cinema downtown, just across from the bus station, has twelve screens and reclining seats.
Many small-town cinemas survive by showing classic films on weeknights.
UsageYou go to the cinema; American English more often says movie theater or go to the movies.
- 3The industry that produces films and movies.
She spent thirty years in Indian cinema before moving into television.
Streaming services have upended the economics of cinema.
Similarfilm
Note
The business sense covers studios, budgets and careers: someone who spent thirty years in Indian cinema held jobs in it. The same phrase can just as easily mean the films themselves, so the rest of the sentence decides; working in Spanish cinema is employment, while admiring Spanish cinema is a matter of taste.
Less common meaning
- 4(informal) A film, show, or moment of such skill or drama that it seems to represent filmmaking or entertainment at its best, as in 'now that's cinema'.
The final shot holds for a full minute without a cut. Now that's cinema.
Online, fans spent the whole weekend calling the director's new film pure cinema.
UsageUsually an exclamation of praise: now that's cinema, this is cinema, pure cinema.
Note
Online film talk turned the art's name into a verdict: now that's cinema, pure cinema, said of a single film or even a single shot judged to show the medium at its best. The same praise also comes as kino, borrowed from Russian kino, "cinema," by way of Dziga Vertov's films.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The English slang term kino was borrowed from Russian kino, meaning cinema, through Dziga Vertov's films. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from French cinéma, a clipping of cinématographe, the term coined by Léon Bouly in 1892 and made famous by the Lumière brothers, from Ancient Greek κίνημα (kínēma, "movement") + γράφω (gráphō, "write, record"). German Kino ("cinema") ultimately comes from the same Greek source.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- English cinema was borrowed from French cinéma. en.wiktionary.org
- French cinéma is a clipping of cinématographe. fr.wiktionary.org
- Léon Bouly coined the term, documented in his patent application of 12 February 1892. dpma.de
- Cinématographe derives from Ancient Greek κίνημα, meaning movement, and γράφω, meaning write or record. en.wiktionary.org
- German Kino means cinema and ultimately shares these Greek roots through cinématographe. fr.wiktionary.org