scenario
Pluralscenarios
- 1A sketch or model of how events are expected or imagined to unfold.
The team mapped out a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario for the merger.
Analysts modeled several scenarios for how the epidemic might unfold.
Similarsituation, outcome, projection, possibility
Note
The word came into English from Italian, built from scena, 'scene' or 'stage' (ultimately Greek skēnē), plus the suffix -ario. That stage origin is still faintly audible when people speak of a best-case or worst-case scenario, as if events had a script. The plural is scenarios; the Italian-style scenari exists but is rare, so scenarios is the safe choice.
- 2A film's screenplay, or an outline or treatment prepared for it.
The studio bought the scenario but demanded major changes before production.
Early silent-film companies employed dozens of writers to churn out scenarios.
Similarscreenplay, script, treatment
Note
A film-industry use that stretches across all of a writer's pages, from a brief treatment to the finished script. Because it is dated, modern readers expect screenplay for the full text and treatment or outline for the earlier stages. This use now belongs mostly to writing about cinema's past, and it shares its old-fashioned ring with the stage plot-outline sense.
- 3A plot summary for a play, novel, or other work of drama or literature.
The program included a scenario of each act to help the audience follow the opera.
Critics praised the tight scenario underlying the tragedy's three acts.
Similarsynopsis, outline, plot, storyline, summary
Note
Here the word stays close to its stage origin, and that is also why it now sounds old-fashioned. Most readers today will hear the 'possible sequence of events' meaning first. In current writing, plot outline or synopsis is usually clearer. Scenario suits discussion of older drama and criticism, where its dated ring fits the subject.
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Origin
Borrowed from Italian scenario, formed from scena ("scene") plus the suffix -ario. The word traces back through Latin scēna to Ancient Greek σκηνή (skēnḗ).