Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The interval between two acts of a theatrical performance.
  • noun Another performance, as of music or dance, provided between two acts of a theatrical performance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The interval between two acts of a play or an opera.
  • noun Instrumental music performed during such an interval.
  • noun A light musical composition suitable for such use.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The interval of time which occurs between the performance of any two acts of a drama.
  • noun A dance, piece of music, or interlude, performed between two acts of a drama.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An interval between two acts of a play or opera.
  • noun Another performance, such as a piece of music or a dance, during this.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a brief show (music or dance etc) inserted between the sections of a longer performance
  • noun the interlude between two acts of a play

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French : entre, between (from Latin inter; see inter–) + acte, act (from Old French; see act).]

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Examples

  • As an entr'acte, if you will, to our series about Catholic Bamberg - which will definitely be continued - today we visit another treasure of Catholic Germany closer to my home Berlin, which I visited last Sunday: the former Cistercian Abbey of Neuzelle ( "New Cell") in the state of Brandenburg.

    Neuzelle Abbey 2009

  • After our entr'acte visiting Neuzelle Abbey, we resume our series on Catholic Bamberg with what is its ecclesial heart: Bamberg Cathedral, seat of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamberg, and one of Germany's most important Imperial cathedrals.

    Catholic Bamberg: The Cathedral 2009

  • The second act, unlike the first, is bulletproof from entr'acte to curtain calls.

    'Little Mermaid' 2008

  • Expensive new sets were constructed and entr'acte specialists Laurence and Morton were jobbed in for the Negro dances.

    Obi in NewYork 2002

  • The sniffling of grown men is an entr'acte, the buzz of voices as the audience re-enters the theatre for another half of the show and still the children have linked hands, fingers & fingers to wrists & wrists, and they have laid the quivering flowers upon the grave. prev & next

    unheimlich Diary Entry unheimlich 2002

  • For those three apparently tranquil decades from 1800 to 1848 have revealed themselves to be nothing but an entr'acte in the great drama.

    REVOLUTION FELIX GILBERT 1968

  • But Celebrities were in short supply: the only ones I can attest to personally were Lillian Hellman (who left in the entr'acte) and Otto Preminger.

    The Gielgud-Burton Hamlet: Notes on a First Night Macdonald, Dwight 1964

  • She also disappeared, in the entr'acte, to visit her husband in his dressing room, or so I read in the papers.

    The Gielgud-Burton Hamlet: Notes on a First Night Macdonald, Dwight 1964

  • _Manrico_ is being tortured, after having been taken prisoner in a combat during the _entr'acte_.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 29, 1892 Various

  • Fifteen years are supposed to elapse before the curtain is again rolled up; and that this allusion may be rendered the more perfect, the audience is kept waiting about three times fifteen minutes, to amuse one another during the _entr'acte_.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 9, 1841 Various

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