fourth wall

noun

: an imaginary wall (as at the opening of a modern stage proscenium) that keeps performers from recognizing or directly addressing their audience

Examples of fourth wall in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Not fully breaking the fourth wall, but breaking the fourth wall of the mind of the audience. Lauren Huff, EW.com, 10 Jan. 2025 His songs often cheekily broke the fourth wall, exposing the industry and its bigwigs’ desire to infringe their commercial logic upon his art. Emma Madden, Vulture, 8 Jan. 2025 In breaking the fourth wall to address the situation, the director might have conveyed the futility of creation in a time of ruin, but the set-up to her short’s awful punchline ultimately serves to underscore the power of trying. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 6 Jan. 2025 Yourcenar called this work a rehearsal of the author’s own death, almost as if Mishima and his disciple Morita were breaking the fourth wall, but the film remains a fantasy, an illusion, an artistic exercise. Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for fourth wall 

Word History

First Known Use

1807, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fourth wall was in 1807

Dictionary Entries Near fourth wall

Cite this Entry

“Fourth wall.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fourth%20wall. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.

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