ROLE-PLAY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
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English (UK)

Meaning of role-play in English

role-play
verb [ I or T ]
(also roleplay, role play)
uk
/ˈrəʊlˌpleɪ/ us
/ˈroʊlˌpleɪ/
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to pretend to be a particular character and to behave and react in the way that character would:
Some kids really enjoy role-playing and acting.
Role-play with a colleague to practise how negotiations might go.
Professional actors roleplayed different situations involving discrimination.
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
to act as if something is true when it is not
  • pretendShe pretended not to know about the surprise.
  • make believeHe's just going to make believe that things are fine in spite of the divorce.
  • play at somethingUK The children are playing at cops and robbers.
  • role-playDuring class, we role-played being a customer and a salesperson to learn words related to shopping.
  • fakeShe's only faking being ill.
  • feignThe police questioned him about the break-in, but he feigned ignorance.
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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Faking & pretending
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
role-play
noun [ C or U ]
(also role play, roleplay)
uk
/ˈrəʊl ˌpleɪ/ us
/ˈroʊl ˌpleɪ/
the activity of pretending to be a particular character and behaving and reacting in the way that character would:
The workshop includes presentations, role-plays, and practical exercises.
Role play is used in training courses, language-learning and psychotherapy.
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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Classes & courses
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(Definition of role-play from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

role play | Business English

role play
noun [ C or U ]
  HR
uk
us
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pretending to be someone else, especially as part of learning a new skill:
Many of these training workshops involve role play.

role-playing

noun [ U ]
Role-playing sessions teach recruits how to deal with certain situations.
(Definition of role-play from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of role-play

role-play
Her data were collected through two role plays.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The evaluator constructs task scenarios from a specification, and then role plays the part of a user.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The unique design of the larger study had captured both naturally occurring role-play episodes and the original interactions on which the play was based.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Exercises include discussion, role-play, simulation, report writing, negotiating budgets and contracts, consumer surveys, small talk, social arrangements, telling anecdotes, exchanging opinions, and socializing.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Training workshops utilized small group work : videos and role-play allowed the practice use of relevant techniques.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Teachers presented skill concepts using modeling stories, puppet characters, photographs, and role-play demonstrations.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Improvements in skills on videotaped role-play, attitudes and confidence were shown in a before-and-after training evaluation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Interviewers, mostly senior community health sisters, were recruited and trained to perform the interviews using role-play and practice interviews.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In sum, a few researchers of role-play have recognized in-role speech as having a metacommunicative function.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Once a role-reversal has been established through assigning roles, the participants continually address each other using the role-play names.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Training for the telephone monitoring program included 4 hours of didactic instruction and 4 hours of demonstration or role-play.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The workshop consisted of lecture, role-play, and the exercise of assessment and care planning based on two vignette verbatim records.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The cooperative role-play analyzed here is unusual in that it is drawn from talk at home rather than in a nursery school or laboratory setting.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Therefore, they have to reason with the disputants and persuade them through role-play.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Interviewers received 8 hours of additional training from the principal investigator including role-play of at least three assessments.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
See all examples of role-play
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of role-play, role play?
 

Translations of role-play

in more languages
in Polish
in Turkish
in Russian
scenka, scenki…
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öğrenme aşamasında rol-yapma çalışmaları…
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разыгрывание ролей…
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roistering
role
role model
role reversal
role-play
role-playing game
roll
roll (something) out
roll around
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