"set dressing" meaning in English

See set dressing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: set dressings [plural]
Etymology: From set + dressing. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|set|dressing}} set + dressing Head templates: {{en-noun}} set dressing (plural set dressings)
  1. (theater) The process of furnishing and decorating a film, TV, or theatre set with all the items that aren't held or used by actors to create a realistic, lived-in environment, and convey character, time period, mood, and story details; distinct from props (items used by actors). Related terms: set dresser Coordinate_terms: scenic design, set design
    Sense id: en-set_dressing-en-noun-dIi-Ri7G Categories (other): Theater, Cinematography Disambiguation of Cinematography: 54 46 Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, theater
  2. (by extension, figurative) Anything that sits in the background to establish mood and visual context. Tags: broadly, figuratively
    Sense id: en-set_dressing-en-noun-8Vgt1HTv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Cinematography Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 31 69 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 24 76 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 23 77 Disambiguation of Cinematography: 54 46
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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "set",
        "3": "dressing"
      },
      "expansion": "set + dressing",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From set + dressing.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "set dressings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "set dressing (plural set dressings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
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          "orig": "en:Cinematography",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "scenic design"
        },
        {
          "word": "set design"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The process of furnishing and decorating a film, TV, or theatre set with all the items that aren't held or used by actors to create a realistic, lived-in environment, and convey character, time period, mood, and story details; distinct from props (items used by actors)."
      ],
      "id": "en-set_dressing-en-noun-dIi-Ri7G",
      "links": [
        [
          "theater",
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        ],
        [
          "props",
          "props"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(theater) The process of furnishing and decorating a film, TV, or theatre set with all the items that aren't held or used by actors to create a realistic, lived-in environment, and convey character, time period, mood, and story details; distinct from props (items used by actors)."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "set dresser"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle",
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      ]
    },
    {
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Anything that sits in the background to establish mood and visual context."
      ],
      "id": "en-set_dressing-en-noun-8Vgt1HTv",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figurative) Anything that sits in the background to establish mood and visual context."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "set dressing"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Cinematography"
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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "set",
        "3": "dressing"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From set + dressing.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "set dressings",
      "tags": [
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    }
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "set dressing (plural set dressings)",
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    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "set dresser"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Theater"
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "scenic design"
        },
        {
          "word": "set design"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The process of furnishing and decorating a film, TV, or theatre set with all the items that aren't held or used by actors to create a realistic, lived-in environment, and convey character, time period, mood, and story details; distinct from props (items used by actors)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "theater",
          "theater"
        ],
        [
          "props",
          "props"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(theater) The process of furnishing and decorating a film, TV, or theatre set with all the items that aren't held or used by actors to create a realistic, lived-in environment, and convey character, time period, mood, and story details; distinct from props (items used by actors)."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle",
        "theater"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Anything that sits in the background to establish mood and visual context."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figurative) Anything that sits in the background to establish mood and visual context."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "set dressing"
}

Download raw JSONL data for set dressing meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-07-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-07-06 using wiktextract (e62056b and e7887d5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.