SCENARIO

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scenario mean? 

• SCENARIO (noun)
  The noun SCENARIO has 3 senses:

1. an outline or synopsis of a play (or, by extension, of a literary work)

2. a setting for a work of art or literature

3. a postulated sequence of possible events

  Familiarity information: SCENARIO used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCENARIO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An outline or synopsis of a play (or, by extension, of a literary work)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("scenario" is a kind of...):

book; playscript; script (a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance)

Derivation:

scenarist (a writer of screenplays)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A setting for a work of art or literature

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

the scenario is France during the Reign of Terror

Hypernyms ("scenario" is a kind of...):

scene; setting (the context and environment in which something is set)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A postulated sequence of possible events

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

planners developed several scenarios in case of an attack

Hypernyms ("scenario" is a kind of...):

assumption; premise; premiss (a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn)

 Context examples 

The latest results from Curiosity indicate that these wetter scenarios were correct for the lower portions of Mount Sharp.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars, NASA)

The researchers believe the strong gravitational stretching that occurs in these scenarios could explain ‘Oumuamua’s long, thin cigar-like shape.

(New Study Shows What Interstellar Visitor ‘Oumuamua Can Teach Us, NASA)

Pelp1 appears to fit the second scenario.

(Pelp1 Estrogen Receptor Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

This third scenario mimicked the changes the human heart undergoes during the last few weeks of fetal development and after birth.

(Early stimulation improves performance of bioengineered human heart cells, National Institutes of Health)

The researchers' proposed scenarios include uplift of the terrain and changes in sea level, or perhaps both.

(Cassini Finds Flooded Canyons on Titan, NASA)

However, he believes the more likely scenario is that life would have been brought in by a meteorite.

(Life Could Exist on Moon 4 Billion Years Ago, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The findings suggest that this approach may be appropriate for some disease scenarios, but may induce complex responses in other disease scenarios by inhibiting helpful and homeostatic functions of inflammation.

(Immune system can slow degenerative eye disease, National Institutes of Health)

They then assessed control strategies for large and small farms under three scenarios: no management of disease, management without crop rotation and management with crop rotation.

(Researchers model ways to control deadly maize disease, SciDev.Net)

“The two scenarios we are working on are a cooling of the surface due to exceptional stellar activity or dust ejection towards us,” says Montargès.

(ESO Telescope Sees Surface of Dim Betelgeuse, ESO)

"That scenario is probably not going to play out."

(Antarctic ice cliffs may not contribute to ice-sheet instability as much as predicted, National Science Foundation)