movies

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

mov•ie /ˈmuvi/   n. [countable]

1. Show Business motion picture:
   They stayed up to watch a late-night movie.
2. Show Business Usually, the movies. [plural] a motion-picture theater:
   We went to the movies last night.
3. Show Business the movies, [plural] the business of making motion pictures;
   the motion-picture industry:
   a producer who made his fortune in the movies.

See -mov-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

mov•ie  (mo̅o̅′vē), n. 

1. Show Business See motion picture. 
2. Show Business motion-picture theater (often prec. by the):
   The movie is next-door to the hardware store.
3. Show Business movies:
   • motion pictures, as an industry (usually prec. by the):
     The movies have had to raise prices.
   • motion pictures, as a genre of art or entertainment:
     gangster movies.
   • the exhibition of a motion picture:
     an evening at the movies.

• mov(ing picture) + -ie 1905–10