MEANING
1. A description of how a situation could develop under particular conditions.
2. A written outline of the characters and events in a film, play, or other dramatic work.
Use it for
exploring possible outcomes without claiming a prediction; comparing consequences under different assumptions; stating what would happen in a conditional caseDistinguishes a conditional account of possible developments from a prediction, with the narrative-outline sense separate. Writing functions: Qualification / Uncertainty, Analysis / Interpretation.
Words that belong together
- a plausible scenario
- a worst-case scenario
- a scenario in which
On the page
The paper compares three scenarios without assigning a probability to any of them.
Under the low-demand scenario, the proposed capacity would remain partly unused.
The early scenario contains the return journey but not the confrontation at the station.
Her notes develop a dramatic scenario from a single unexplained absence.
Word forms
- Base
- scenario
Usage notes
Count noun: scenario; plural scenarios, not scenarii. A possible scenario or a scenario in which something happens. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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