screenwriter

screenwriter — noun

1. a person whose job is to create the script for a film or television show, decidi

1.nounB2
Definition

a person whose job is to create the script for a film or television show, deciding what the characters say and what happens in each scene

Example

Roya worked as a screenwriter for eight years before her first film reached cinemas.

screenwriter + for + [duration] + before + [event]

The director hired a young screenwriter to rewrite the dialogue for the final scene.

passive: be hired to rewrite [something]

Common collocations
  • award-winning screenwriter
  • professional screenwriter
  • aspiring screenwriter
  • screenwriter + writes/creates/develops + screenplay/script
  • work as a screenwriter
  • become a screenwriter
  • hire a screenwriter
Synonyms
  • scriptwriter

    broader term; can include television, radio, and video-game scripts, not only film

  • playwright

    writes for theatre/stage rather than film; the structure and format are very different

  • filmmaker

    much broader — refers to anyone involved in making a film (director, producer, cinematographer), not specific to writing

Grammar Patterns

screenwriter + writes/creates + [script/screenplay]

Usage Note

A screenwriter focuses on script and dialogue, whereas a playwright writes for the stage. The profession is often credited as 'written by' in film credits.

Common Mistakes

She is a screenwriter who writes novels.
She is a screenwriter who writes film scripts.
a screenwriter writes screenplays, not novels, though some do both.
The screenwriter directed the movie himself.
The screenwriter wrote the movie, and the director filmed it.
screenwriters and directors are usually different people, though some work in both roles.

Word family

  • screenwriting
    nounB2
  • screenplay
    nounB2
  • scriptwriter
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A screenwriter specifically writes scripts for film or television, while a scriptwriter is a more general term that covers radio, video games, and corporate videos as well. A playwright, by contrast, writes for the theatre — stage plays have a very different structure, with acts and scenes built around live performance rather than camera shots. In practice, screenwriters and scriptwriters overlap heavily, but 'screenwriter' is preferred in the film industry. For example, 'Nora Ephron was a celebrated screenwriter who wrote romantic comedies for Hollywood,' whereas 'the radio show hired a scriptwriter to shape each episode's dialogue.'

screenwriter ↗scriptwriterplaywright ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • work as a screenwriter
  • become a screenwriter
  • hire a screenwriter
  • award-winning screenwriter
  • aspiring screenwriter

Prepositions

Etymology

Old EnglishLatinEnglish

A compound of 'screen' (from Old English 'scrīn', via Latin 'scrīnium' meaning a box or case for papers — later extended to mean a surface for displaying images) and 'writer' (from Old English 'wrītan', meaning to inscribe or draw). The term 'screenwriter' emerged in the early 20th century, shortly after the film industry adopted 'screenplay' to describe the written script for a motion picture.