script

Pluralscripts

Formsscripts, scripting, scripted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The written text of a play, movie, or other performance, containing its dialogue and directions, especially in the final form used for the performance itself.

   The director made several changes to the script before filming began.

   He spent months writing the script for his first feature film.

   Similarscreenplay, text

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A file containing a list of commands that can be invoked once to carry out a sequence of actions automatically.

   He scheduled the script to run every night at midnight.

   A single script can update hundreds of records in seconds.

   Similarmacro

   Note

   Here the emphasis falls on the file rather than on the program. It is a stored list of commands, written once and run in sequence whenever needed. Shell script, batch file and macro are its near synonyms. The sense overlaps heavily with the short-program sense, but this one is closer to a recorded series of instructions than to designed code.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A system of written symbols developed for recording a particular language or group of languages.

   Turkish switched from the Arabic script to a Latin-based one in 1928.

   Archaeologists struggled for decades to decipher the ancient script.

   Similaralphabet, writing

   Note

   Linguists use the word for a writing system as a whole, such as Latin, Cyrillic or Devanagari, rather than for any one person's hand. Writing system is the fuller synonym. A language can change scripts without changing its words, and one script can serve many languages. Contrast a style of handwriting: a cramped script is someone's penmanship, while the Arabic script is a whole system of signs.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Handwriting, or the particular style in which written characters are formed.

   The letter was penned in an elegant, flowing script.

   I could barely make out his cramped, hurried script.

   Similarhandwriting, hand, writing, penmanship

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To write a script for a play, movie, or other performance.

   He was hired to script the sequel after the first film's success.

   They scripted the documentary around a series of interviews.

   Similarwrite

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To devise, plan, or arrange something deliberately in advance.

   They carefully script every public appearance to avoid surprises.

   Critics claimed the team had scripted the entire confrontation in advance.

   Similarchoreograph, orchestrate, stage, plan, arrange

   Oppositeimprovise

   Note

   The figurative verb borrows from the stage: to script something is to arrange in advance what ought to look spontaneous. It often carries suspicion. James Lambert, writing in 2018, speaks of "the scripting of unsubstantiated factoids." The participle works as an adjective in the same spirit: a scripted confrontation is one that only pretends to be unplanned.

7. 7
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountableabbreviationclipping

   Clipping of prescription.

   She handed the pharmacist her script and waited for it to be filled.

   He couldn't refill the script without seeing his doctor first.

   Note

   The pharmacy counter's short form is informal but long-lived. William S. Burroughs uses it in Junky (1953), and it appears in Travis Scott's "Don't Play" in 2014. Like prescription, it can mean either the doctor's written order or the medicine that order gets you. It takes the same verbs: you get, fill and refill a script. In formal writing, prescription is the safer choice.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A brief, simple computer program, often written to perform a single task.

   A short script can save you from repeating the same task by hand.

   She shared a handy script that resizes images in bulk.

   Similarprogram

   Note

   Programmers use the word for a program small enough to write quickly and aim at one job, such as putting a folder of files into the right format. Such programs are typically interpreted rather than compiled, and Python is a common choice. The word also implies scale: call something a script and you suggest it is not a full application.

9. 9
   nouncountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of behavioral script.

   Diners unconsciously follow a familiar script: sit, order, eat, pay.

   When the usual script breaks down, people feel awkward and unsure.

   Note

   Psychology's shorthand for behavioral script names the expected run of actions in a familiar situation, such as ordering at a restaurant. Once behavioral is dropped, only context signals the technical meaning, so the full phrase is clearer on first mention. The term borrows the image of a play's text: people act out a sequence they already know, and awkwardness follows when it breaks down.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    Something written down; a written document or text.

    The archive holds scripts dating back several centuries.

    He produced a faded script proving his ownership of the land.

    Similarhandwriting, manuscript, hand

    Note

    The sense closest to the word's origin is Middle English scrit, through Old French escrit, from Latin scriptum, "something written," from scribo, "write." Here the word names the written thing itself, a document you can hold and count. The other senses narrow this one: to a style of handwriting, the text of a play, or a list of commands for a machine.

11. 11
    nouncountable or uncountable

    A style of type designed to imitate handwriting.

    The logo uses an elegant script to suggest tradition and craft.

    Designers often pair a bold sans-serif with a delicate script.

    Similarcursive

    Note

    This is a typographer's word for lettering that only looks handwritten. The letterforms are designed once and then set as type. Script typefaces range from formal calligraphic designs to casual brush lettering, and cursive is the near synonym. Keep it apart from a person's handwriting: a script in this sense is chosen from a list of fonts, not formed by a hand.

12. 12
    nouncountable

    The original of a legal document or instrument, rather than a copy or duplicate.

    The notary verified the script before any copies were certified.

    Only the script bears the original signatures and seals.

    Similaroriginal

    Oppositecopy, duplicate

    Note

    Law keeps the word close to its literal root. The script is the original instrument, the one bearing the actual signatures and seals, as opposed to any copy, duplicate or transcript. The distinction matters because the original is treated as the authoritative version. It is a narrow technical use, and outside legal writing most readers will expect the plainer word original.

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