rehearsal

/rəˈhʌrsəl/

/rəˈhʌsəl/

Other forms: rehearsals

A rehearsal is a practice, especially for a performance of some kind. You're likely to be nervous about your magic show if the rehearsal goes badly.

When you practice for a play, read your speech in front of a mirror, or go through a dance performance before the big show, you're taking part in a rehearsal. Any kind of practice session can be called a rehearsal, like a wedding rehearsal or a musician's rehearsal. The Old French root of rehearsal is rehercier, "go over again." Originally, rehearsal just meant "to say something over again;" in the mid-1500s it began to also mean "practice a play."

Definitions of rehearsal

1. noun

   a practice session in preparation for a public performance (as of a play or speech or concert)
   “he missed too many rehearsals”

   “a rehearsal will be held the day before the wedding”

   synonyms: dry run

   types:

   dress rehearsal

   a full uninterrupted rehearsal in costumes shortly before the first performance

   run-through

   an uninterrupted rehearsal

   walk-through

   a first perfunctory rehearsal of a theatrical production in which actors read their lines from the script and move as directed

   type of:

   drill, exercise, practice, practice session, recitation

   systematic training by multiple repetitions
2. noun

   (psychology) a form of practice; repetition of information (silently or aloud) in order to keep it in short-term memory
   type of:

   drill, exercise, practice, practice session, recitation

   systematic training by multiple repetitions