A screenwriting glossary is a reference that explains the words used to write, format, and discuss scripts for film and television. Use this page to find the term that matches your question, whether you're reading a script or writing your own.
- Screenwriting glossary
- A screenwriting glossary is a reference for looking up screenwriting terminology. Use it to identify an unfamiliar word, then return to the script or writing task where you found it.
Start with the question closest to the word you've encountered. The groups below separate page formatting from story language and business documents. You don't need to memorize the vocabulary before you begin writing. Look up what you need, then put it to work on your page.
What are the parts of a screenplay page called?
Screenplay pages commonly organize scenes through scene headings, action, character cues, and dialogue. In the station scene below, the location appears before Mara's movement and spoken words. If you're unsure what belongs where, identify the kind of information you're writing before changing its appearance.
- Screenplay: Start here when you need to understand the document as a whole before examining its individual parts.
- Scene heading: Find the conventions for introducing a location and time, such as the station waiting room at night.
- Action: Check how to describe Mara dragging a chair toward the door without explaining thoughts the audience cannot see.
- Character cue: Look up how the page identifies Mara as the speaker before her words begin.
- Dialogue: Find where spoken words belong and how their layout differs from the surrounding descriptions.
- Parenthetical: Check whether a brief direction beneath the speaker's name adds information the spoken words leave unclear.
- Master scene: Look here when you're deciding whether to describe the scene continuously or divide it into camera shots.
- Fountain: Use this entry for questions about plain-text screenplay files, rather than the names of elements on the page.
What do INT., EXT., O.S., V.O., and CONT'D mean?
These abbreviations commonly clarify location, the relationship between a voice and the scene, or continued speech. For example, Mara can hear a guard through the waiting-room door without seeing him. That situation calls for a different label from a narrator speaking over the station image.
- INT. and EXT.: Check the location abbreviations before writing a scene inside the station or outside beside the tracks.
- O.S.: Look up the label for the unseen guard whose voice reaches Mara from beyond the door.
- V.O.: Compare the guard's voice with narration from someone who isn't present in the station scene.
- CONT'D: Find out why a continuation label appears when Mara speaks again after an intervening action.
What are the common transitions and cuts?
Transition language commonly describes movement between scenes, while montage and intercut describe different ways of arranging material. Leaving the waiting room is different from showing Mara search several platforms. Decide what relationship the images need before choosing a label.
- Transition: Look up CUT TO: and DISSOLVE TO:, including whether the move needs an explicit instruction at all.
- Montage: Check this term when a sequence of brief images compresses Mara's search rather than presenting each search in full.
- Intercut: Look here when the scene alternates between Mara at the station and someone she calls elsewhere.
What are the story-structure terms?
Story-structure terms commonly describe how events begin, develop, and change direction across a screenplay. Suppose Mara discovers that her missing brother left his suitcase at the station. Ask what that discovery changes before deciding which structural term fits it.
- Three-act structure: Look at the broad shape of Mara's story rather than the formatting of an individual scene.
- Inciting incident: Find the term to consider when the abandoned suitcase disrupts Mara's life and starts her search.
- Plot point: Check this entry when a discovery sends the search toward a different person, place, or goal.
- Midpoint: Look here when a major turn near the story's middle changes what Mara believes she's pursuing.
- Beat: Compare a small change within the scene with the separate use of the word to indicate a pause.
What are the character and dialogue terms?
Dialogue terms commonly distinguish spoken words, brief performance directions, and meaning beneath the words. Mara can ask whether the station stays open while watching the guard reach for his keys. As writing advice, let the situation help carry what she doesn't say.
- Dialogue: Return to the spoken line itself when you're deciding what Mara says rather than what she does.
- Parenthetical: Check whether the reader needs a short direction or already understands the delivery from the situation.
- Subtext: Look here when Mara's question about closing time carries an unspoken request not to be left outside.
What do the business terms mean?
Business terms commonly identify how a screenplay was written, how its story is presented, or how a reader evaluates it. A short description of Mara's search isn't the same document as a report assessing the finished script. Check which document someone is asking for before preparing it.
- Spec script: Look up the circumstances of writing a screenplay without a commission, rather than a particular story genre.
- Logline: Find the compact story-summary term when you need to name Mara's goal and the main obstacle.
- Treatment: Check this entry when the request calls for a developed prose telling rather than formatted script pages.
- Synopsis: Look here when you need a shorter account of the whole story that still includes its ending.
- Script coverage: Distinguish a reader's report on Mara's screenplay from the story summaries the writer prepares.
What do the television and microdrama terms mean?
These terms commonly identify an opening episode, an opening segment, or a short serialized drama format. Mara's station story could introduce a continuing series or begin with a scene before the titles. Those choices answer different questions, so keep the terms separate.
- Pilot: Check how an opening episode introduces the people, world, and situation that can support further episodes.
- Teaser: Look here when discussing the opening scene before the main titles, rather than the entire opening episode.
- Microdrama: Find the format term when discussing a serialized drama made in very short episodes for phone screens.
What do screenplay terms look like on the page?
A screenplay commonly places the scene heading before action, with each speaker's cue above the dialogue. The original example below also uses O.S. for a guard who is nearby but unseen. Read the scene, then match each visible element to its glossary entry.
INT. STATION WAITING ROOM - NIGHT
MARA drags a chair toward the locked door. A suitcase rests beneath it.
GUARD
(O.S.)
Leave the case. I'll bring it through.
Mara hooks her foot through the suitcase handle.
MARA
I'll wait.
Mara's foot through the handle gives her spoken line a context. As a writing choice, the action suggests she doesn't trust the guard with the suitcase. The glossary helps name the elements, but the scene still needs to make those elements mean something together.
Use the screenwriting guides when you need a fuller lesson beyond a word's meaning. Browse the screenwriting blog for further reading. Keep this glossary nearby as a reference, not a test you need to pass before drafting.