all the world's a stage
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.48 in modern English
26
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
3
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "But ſtill, perhaps, 'tis ſomewhat new you'll ſay, / For School-Boys to attempt to act a Play. / Why ſhould the Attempt ſurprize! it ſuits our Age, / And more you know, that all the World's a Stage. / Of general Uſe indeed muſt ſeem this Art, / Since every Man was born to act his Part."
- "Now we meet singers who depict Earth, Moon, Bread, and a pair of actors, played gamely by William Redfield and Rae Allen, who were meant to promote the notion that all the world's a stage. […] The saying that all the world's a stage is true enough. But it doesn't follow conversely that the stage is the world. The stage is more demanding than the world, and its rules are even harsher. As Dude proves, it can't get by on good intentions."
- ""Joey, my husband, was torn between the stage and the law," Mari's mother said. "I don't know which one won and which lost." / "My dear, you know that all the world's a stage. Boards or bench. I'll get the drinks.""
- "This is not simply to rehash the rather meaningless notion that all human behaviour is performance, or even that ‘all the world’s a stage’, but instead to suggest that there is something in the appearing that takes place in the theatre that seems capable of activating in an audience a feeling of our compromised, alienated participation in the political and economic relations that make us appear to be who we are."
- "We live in a civilised society, and in a civilised society everyone is an actor – film, TV, drama, crosstalk, sketch – we're all acting. Don't they say that all the world's a stage?"
Etymology
Coined by the English playwright William Shakespeare (baptized 1564; died 1616) from the beginning of a monologue delivered by the character Jaques in Act II, scene vii, of the play As You Like It, believed to have been written in 1599: “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women, meerly Players; […]”.