pan·to·mime
ˈpan-tə-ˌmīm 
1
2
a
: an ancient Roman dramatic performance featuring a solo dancer and a narrative chorus
b
: any of various dramatic or dancing performances in which a story is told by expressive bodily or facial movements of the performers
a ballet that is part dance and part pantomime
c
: a British theatrical entertainment of the Christmas season based on a nursery tale and featuring topical songs, tableaux, and dances
3
a
: conveyance of a story by bodily or facial movements especially in drama or dance
b
: the art or genre of conveying a story by bodily movements only
pantomimed; pantomiming
: to engage in pantomime
: to represent by pantomime
Examples of pantomime in a Sentence
Noun
In the game of charades, one player uses pantomime to represent a word or phrase that the other players have to try to guess.
We saw pantomimes at the fair.
a ballet that is part dance and part pantomime
Verb
He pantomimed someone talking on the phone.
Recent Examples on the Web
David Remnick, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
The rest of the cast is similarly sleepwalking through a fanciful pantomime of Southern culture rather than a serious drama.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 13 Oct. 2025
Mark Hay, Popular Science, 9 Oct. 2025
Are the bees, in fact, pantomiming the way itself?
—Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pantomime
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Noun
Talk of a solution—of two states, of a confederation, of nearly any prospect for a secure and free mode of coexistence—has long been dismissed as either an ingenuous assertion of faith or a cynical pantomime, an empty gesture toward a future no one expects to see.
—David Remnick, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
The rest of the cast is similarly sleepwalking through a fanciful pantomime of Southern culture rather than a serious drama.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 13 Oct. 2025
Verb
Instead, early actors and prop makers probably just pantomimed bloodless violence, at most using bright red cloth to signify gore.
—Mark Hay, Popular Science, 9 Oct. 2025
Are the bees, in fact, pantomiming the way itself?
—Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pantomime
Cite this Entry
“Pantomime.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pantomime. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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