mystery playn.
/ˈmɪst(ə)rɪ pleɪ/, U.S. /ˈmɪst(ə)ri ˌpleɪ/ 1. = mystery n.1 9.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > mystery or miracle play
miraclec1395
resurrectiona1400
wonder1435
mystery1555
scaffold play1565
miracle play1602
mystery play1808
1808 W. Scott Strutt's Queenhoo Hall I. iv. i. 144 She is as ugly as a succubus, and only wants a hood of snakes to lead the dance of hobgoblins in a mystery play.
1876 C. M. Yonge Cameos cxxx, in Monthly Packet Sept. 213 Keillar was summoned before Cardinal Beaton..for having written a mystery-play.
1909 Catholic Encycl. VI. 229/1 Francis's repraesentatio, as Salimbene calls it, of the stable at Bethlehem is the first mystery-play we hear of in Italy.
1989 Theatre Res. Internat. 14 1 Fireworks had been used for many years in the mystery plays which were still a popular form of theatre at the end of the fifteenth century.
2. A play in which a mystery is investigated or solved. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > other types of play
king play1469
king game1504
historya1509
chronicle history1600
monology1608
horseplaya1627
piscatory1631
stock play1708
petite pièce1712
mimic1724
ballad opera1730
ballad farce1735
benefit-play1740
potboiler1783
monodrama1793
extravaganza1797
theo-drama1801
monodrame1803
proverb1803
stock piece1804
bespeak1807
ticket-night1812
dramaticle1813
monopolylogue1819
pièce d'occasion1830
interlude1831
mimea1834
costume piece1834
mummers' play1849
history play1850
gag-piece1860
music drama1874
well-made1881
playlet1884
two-decker1884
slum1885
kinderspiel1886
thrill1886
knockabout1887
two-hander1888
front-piece1889
thriller1889
shadow-play1890
mime play1894
problem play1894
one-acter1895
sex play1899
chronicle drama1902
thesis-play1902
star vehicle1904
folk-play1905
radio play1908
tab1915
spy play1919
one-act1920
pièce à thèse1923
dance-drama1924
a mess of plottage1926
turkey1927
weepie1928
musical1930
cliffhanger1931
mime drama1931
triangle drama1931
weeper1934
spine-chiller1940
starrer1941
scorcher1942
teleplay1947
straw-hatter1949
pièce noire1951
pièce rose1951
tab show1951
conversation piece1952
psychodrama1956
whydunit1968
mystery play1975
State of the Nation1980
1975 Listener 18 Sept. 371/1 There was a very eminent cleric..[who] used to do what they called a mystery play... It wasn't my idea of a mystery play, a good old Agatha Christie play.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1808