fourth wall

American

[fawrth wawl] / ˈfɔrθ ˈwɔl /

noun

the imaginary, invisible wall, as across the front of a stage, that separates the world constructed by a play, movie, television show, video game, or literary work from the actual world inhabited by the audience.

idioms

break the fourth wall, to violate the conventional separation between the world of a play, movie, television show, video game, or literary work and the world inhabited by the viewer.

The actor’s periodic asides to the audience break the fourth wall and elicit much-needed laughs.

Etymology

Origin of fourth wall

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Weisz remembers doing a Neil LaBute play in the ‘90s in which she broke the fourth wall but had never done so onscreen. The actor says she did have an audience in mind when speaking to the camera, but it would be “reductive” to overexplain it.

From Los Angeles Times

One of the most compelling parts of the memoir is when he breaks the fourth wall, narrating letters to individuals from his past.

From Los Angeles Times

That was how to break the fourth wall, wasn’t it?

From Literature

Soboroff, then an NBC News national correspondent, briefly broke the fourth wall while trying to describe the destruction of his former hometown, the Pacific Palisades.

From Los Angeles Times

Some of those very special appearances were designed to crack the fourth wall, as when the star’s very famous love or spouse drops by to play against type.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023