Word.ws English Dictionary

cut scene

cut scene noun: a usually non-interactive portion of cinematic narrative shown during a video game to advance the story. It may be presented with full motion video or may be rendered with the game engine.

Noun

cut scene (plural cut scenes)

  1. A usually non-interactive portion of cinematic narrative shown during a video game to advance the story. It may be presented with full motion video or may be rendered with the game engine.
    Synonyms:
    cinematic

Synonyms of cut scene

Forms of cut scene

pluralcut scenes
alternative formcutscene

Origin of cut scene

Coined by game designer Ron Gilbert to describe non-interactive cinematic sequences in the 1987 adventure game Maniac Mansion, in reference to the cuts between scenes in films.

Questions about cut scene

What does cut scene mean?
Cut scene means a usually non-interactive portion of cinematic narrative shown during a video game to advance the story. It may be presented with full motion video or may be rendered with the game engine.
What part of speech is cut scene?
Cut scene is a noun.
What is the plural of cut scene?
The plural of cut scene is cut scenes.

Words near cut scene in the dictionary

  1. cut out the middleman
  2. cut point
  3. cut points
  4. cut red tape
  5. cut round
  6. cut scene
  7. cut scenes
  8. cut sheet
  9. cut sheets
  10. cut short
  11. cut sig

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cut scene (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cut scene.wav.

Cite this entry: “cut scene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cut_scene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.