script

Everyday

1. A script is the written words of a play, film or TV show, telling actors what to say and do. tree →
2. A script is a writing system or style of handwriting, like the Latin, Cyrillic or Arabic script, or joined-up "script" handwriting. tree →
3. (computers) A script is a small program, a list of instructions for a computer. tree →
4. To script something is to write the words for it or plan it in detail. tree →

In the lessons

In drama lessons pupils read scripts, learn their lines and write playscripts with stage directions. In handwriting lessons in the USA, "script" or "cursive" means joined-up writing. In computing, children may write scripts in Scratch. In stories and real life, "following the script" means doing what was planned. Phrases: "learn the script", "film script", "write a script", "go off script", "scripted".

Examples

• I learned my lines from the script for the school play. tree →
• The script says, "Enter the giant, stage left." tree →
• Arabic script is written from right to left. tree →
• In Scratch, we built a script to make the cat dance. tree →
• The interview felt scripted, not natural. tree →
• The comedian went off script and made everyone laugh. tree →
• We wrote a script for our own puppet show. tree →
• The very letters that have spread through all Europe except Russia, are to be traced to the script of these Irish monks: why not certain folk-tales? tree →

Note

Countable: a script, scripts. A person who writes film scripts is a scriptwriter or screenwriter. "Scripture" (holy writing, like the Bible) comes from the same old word for "writing". A playscript has character names on the left and stage directions in brackets.

In Jewish tradition

In Isaiah, God tells the prophet to write on a tablet in "common script," meaning ordinary letters anyone can read.

Interpretation. In Sefer Yetzirah "script" is the written letters, one of the three ways God made the world: Scribe, Script and Scroll.

Examples

• In Tomus Primus of ** Artis Cabalisticae hoc est reconditae theologiae et philosophise script orum." Basileae 1587, is found ** Liber de Creatione Cabalistinis, Hebraice Sepher Jezira ; Authore Abrahamo. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• Thirty-two mysterious ways has the Lord, Lord of hosts, ordained through Scribe, Script, and Scroll. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
• "Thirty-two mysterious ways has the Lord, the Lord of hosts, ordained through Scribe, Script and Scroll." (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
• And the LORD said unto me: 'Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it in common script: The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth; (Prophets ISA.8.1, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable: a script, scripts. A person who writes film scripts is a scriptwriter or screenwriter. "Scripture" (holy writing, like the Bible) comes from the same old word for "writing". A playscript has character names on the left and stage directions in brackets.