SCRIPT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does script mean? 

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

1. a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance

2. something written by hand

3. a particular orthography or writing system

  Familiarity information: SCRIPT used as a noun is uncommon.

• SCRIPT (verb)
  The verb SCRIPT has 1 sense:

1. write a script for

  Familiarity information: SCRIPT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCRIPT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

book; playscript; script

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

dramatic composition; dramatic work (a play for performance on the stage or television or in a movie etc.)

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

prompt copy; promptbook (the copy of the playscript used by the prompter)

continuity (a detailed script used in making a film in order to avoid discontinuities from shot to shot)

dialog; dialogue (the lines spoken by characters in drama or fiction)

libretto (the words of an opera or musical play)

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

screenplay (a script for a film including dialogue and descriptions of characters and sets)

shooting script (the final detailed script for making a movie or TV program)

Derivation:

script (write a script for)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something written by hand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

hand; handwriting; script

Context example:

his hand was illegible

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

writing (letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language)

Domain category:

handwriting (the activity of writing by hand)

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

shorthand; stenography; tachygraphy (a method of writing rapidly using an abbreviated symbolic system)

cacography; scratch; scrawl; scribble (poor handwriting)

calligraphy; chirography; penmanship (beautiful handwriting)

cursive; cursive script; longhand; running hand (rapid handwriting in which letters are set down in full and are cursively connected within words without lifting the writing implement from the paper)

Derivation:

scriptural (written or relating to writing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A particular orthography or writing system

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

orthography; writing system (a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols)

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

Avestan (the script in which the ancient Persian language of the Avesta is written)

Brahmi (a script (probably adapted from the Aramaic about the 7th century BC) from which later Indian scripts developed)

Devanagari; Devanagari script; Nagari; Nagari script (a syllabic script used in writing Sanskrit and Hindi)

Pahlavi (the script (derived from the Aramaic alphabet) used to write the Pahlavi language)

Uighur; Uigur; Uygur (the script (derived from Aramaic) used to write the Uighur language)

uncial (a style of orthography characterized by somewhat rounded capital letters; found especially in Greek and Latin manuscripts of the 4th to 8th centuries)

cuneiform (an ancient wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia and Persia)

syllabary; syllabic script (a writing system whose characters represent syllables)

alphabet (a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language)

Aramaic; Aramaic script (an alphabetical (or perhaps syllabic) script used since the 9th century BC to write the Aramaic language; many other scripts were subsequently derived from it)

• SCRIPT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they script    ... he / she / it scripts   
Past simple: scripted   
Past participle: scripted   
-ing form: scripting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Write a script for

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Context example:

The playwright scripted the movie

Hypernyms (to "script" is one way to...):

compose; indite; pen; write (produce a literary work)

Domain category:

authorship; composition; penning; writing (the act of creating written works)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue script the movie

Derivation:

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

 Context examples 

"It is clearly some sort of script," said Challenger.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But even if it were not, we should stand or fall by our act, and perhaps some day this very script may be evidence to come between some of us and a rope.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A new study reveals that, in the face of an invading virus or bacteria, or an irritating chemical, the cell's protein-making machinery goes off-script, inserting more of an amino acid known to help defend proteins against damage.

(Genes Can be Read in Different Ways, NIH, US)