box office
/ˈbɑksˌɑfɪs/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.88 in modern English
26
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The total amount of money paid by people worldwide to watch a movie at cinemas/movie theaters.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The movie tanked at the box office."
- "box office receipts"
- "If any further insurance was required, the popularity of the three "Topper" films in the 1930s — based on Thorne Smith's characters — would seem to indicate that amusing ghosts made good box office."
- "His performance last night was pure box office."
- "A show that makes great box office."
Etymology
1786, presumably from sales of boxes, box seats (“separated private seating”). Sense of “total sales” from 1904. Folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre, where theater admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience. However, the term is first attested over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642), making this highly unlikely.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɑksˌɑfɪs/
- British English: /ˈbɒksˌɒfɪs/