DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dramatis personae mean? 

• DRAMATIS PERSONAE (noun)
  The noun DRAMATIS PERSONAE has 1 sense:

1. the actors in a play

  Familiarity information: DRAMATIS PERSONAE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DRAMATIS PERSONAE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The actors in a play

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

cast; cast of characters; dramatis personae

Hypernyms ("dramatis personae" is a kind of...):

assemblage; gathering (a group of persons together in one place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dramatis personae"):

ensemble; supporting players (a cast other than the principals)

Holonyms ("dramatis personae" is a member of...):

company; troupe (organization of performers and associated personnel (especially theatrical))

 Context examples 

Pangloss for himself; and very earnestly, but very unsuccessfully, trying to persuade the others that there were some fine tragic parts in the rest of the dramatis personae.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Jo accepted it with a smile, for she had never outgrown her liking for lads, and soon found herself involved in the usual labyrinth of love, mystery, and murder, for the story belonged to that class of light literature in which the passions have a holiday, and when the author's invention fails, a grand catastrophe clears the stage of one half the dramatis personae, leaving the other half to exult over their downfall.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)