film
[ˈfɪlm̩]
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.20 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A thin layer of some substance; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The sequence of still images itself, which produces a moving image when played; a movie.
Countable
noun
A visual art form that consists of a sequence of still images preserved on a recording medium to give the illusion of motion; movies generally.
Uncountable
noun
A professionally made movie of a substantial narrative work, around 1 to 3 hours long; a feature film; a cinematic movie.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To record (activity, or a motion picture) on photographic film.
verb
To visually record (activity, or a motion picture) in general, with or without sound.
Example Sentences
- "a clear plastic film for wrapping food"
- "He from thick films ſhall purge the viſual ray, / And on the ſightleſs eye-ball pour the day: […]"
- "Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film."
- "Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film."
- "A Hollywood studio was filming on location in NYC."
- "I tried to film the UFO as it passed overhead."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pel-der. Proto-Germanic *felma- Proto-Germanic *filmīn- Old English filmen Middle English filme English film From Middle English filme, from Old English filmen (“film, membrane, thin skin, foreskin”), from Proto-West Germanic *filmīn-, from Proto-Germanic *filmīn- (“thin skin, membrane”) (compare Proto-Germanic *felma- (“skin, hide”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pél-mo- (“membrane”), from *pel- (“to cover, skin”). Cognate with Old Frisian filmene (“thin skin, human skin”), Middle Dutch velm, vilm (“fleece, film, membrane”), Old High German felm (“peel, skin, wrap”), Old English *felma (in ǣġerfelma (“egg membrane”)). Related also to Dutch vel (“sheet, skin”), German Fell (“skin, hide, fur”), Swedish fjäll (“fur blanket, cloth, scale”), Norwegian fille (“rag, cloth”), Lithuanian plėvē (“membrane, scab”), Russian плева́ (plevá, “membrane”), Ancient Greek πέλμα (pélma, “sole of the foot”). More at fell. Sense of a thin coat of something is 1577, extended by 1845 to the coating of chemical gel on photographic plates. By 1895 this also meant the coating plus the paper or celluloid.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: filme, filmen, *filmīn-