pantomime

pantomime — noun

1. a British comic stage show, full of songs, dance and silly jokes, that retells a

1.nounC1
Definition

a British comic stage show, full of songs, dance and silly jokes, that retells a famous fairy tale such as Cinderella and is put on for families around Christmas.

Example

Every December, the Mason family books seats at the local pantomime in Brighton.

British cultural noun: 'the pantomime' as a Christmas family outing

This year's pantomime at the Hackney Empire is a noisy, joyful version of Cinderella.

typical structure: pantomime + based on a fairy tale

Common collocations
  • go to the pantomime
  • stage a pantomime
  • Christmas pantomime
  • pantomime dame
  • pantomime villain
Synonyms
  • panto

    informal British shortening, used in everyday talk

  • Christmas show

    broader, less specific to the British fairy-tale format

Usage Note

Subject is normally a UK theatre, family or school. Often shortened to 'panto' in everyday British speech. Used with the definite article when speaking of the cultural tradition: 'go to the pantomime'.

Common Mistakes

My American friends watch pantomime every Christmas in Texas.
My British friends watch pantomime every Christmas in London.
this sense is specific to UK theatre culture; Americans do not typically know this tradition.

2. a way of telling a story or showing an idea using only the body, hands and face,

2.nounC1
Definition

a way of telling a story or showing an idea using only the body, hands and face, without speaking; also a single performance done in this style.

Example

The street performers told the story of a lost child entirely through pantomime.

uncountable: pantomime as an art form

Lina watched her grandfather's pantomime and laughed when he pretended to climb a tall ladder.

countable: a single pantomime performance

Common collocations
  • through pantomime
  • in pantomime
  • use pantomime
  • silent pantomime
Synonyms
  • mime

    near-synonym; 'mime' is more common for the silent-acting art form

  • dumb show

    older literary term for a wordless dramatic scene

Antonyms
  • speech

    the verbal channel that pantomime deliberately avoids

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: this sense is about wordless performance technique, NOT the British Christmas play (which has plenty of singing and shouting). The British Christmas show is also called pantomime, but does include speech and music.

Common Mistakes

The actor used a pantomime of his hands to ask for water.
The actor used pantomime to ask for water.
for the technique, treat it as uncountable; no article needed.

pantomime — verb

Word family

  • pantomimic
    adjectiveC2
  • pantomimist
    nounC2
  • mime
    nounB2
  • mime
    verbB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/2

All four words involve telling something without speaking, but they sit in different registers. 'Mime' is the everyday word for the silent-acting art form and is what most English speakers would say in casual talk: 'a street mime'. 'Pantomime', when used in this sense, sounds slightly more formal or technical and is favoured in drama-school or academic contexts. 'Dumb show' is an older literary term, often found when discussing Elizabethan theatre, and feels archaic in modern speech. 'Charades' refers specifically to the party game in which players act out a word or phrase silently for others to guess. Compare: 'The drama students study mime and pantomime' versus 'After dinner, the family played charades by the fireplace.'

mime ↗pantomime ↗dumb showcharades

Common collocations

Nouns

  • pantomime dame
  • pantomime villain
  • pantomime horse
  • pantomime artist
  • Christmas pantomime

Adverbs

Phrases

  • go to the pantomime
  • stage a pantomime
  • perform in pantomime
  • tell a story through pantomime

Prepositions

  • in pantomime
  • through pantomime
  • by pantomime

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Pantomime came into English in the late 1500s from Latin 'pantomimus', which itself was borrowed from Greek 'pantomimos', meaning roughly 'an imitator of all things' (from 'panto-' meaning 'all' and 'mimos' meaning 'imitator'). In ancient Rome, a pantomimus was a solo dancer who acted out famous stories using only movement, while a chorus sang the narrative. The word kept its 'wordless storytelling' meaning in English for centuries. The British Christmas-show meaning grew out of 18th-century London stage entertainments that mixed mime with songs and slapstick comedy, and over time the speaking and singing parts overtook the silent ones — yet the name stuck.