morality play
noun
1
: an allegorical play popular especially in the 15th and 16th centuries in which the characters personify abstract qualities or concepts (such as virtues, vices, or death)
2
: something (such as a court trial) which involves a direct conflict between right and wrong or good and evil and from which a moral lesson may be drawn
Examples of morality play in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
These distortions reduce a complex conflict to a morality play.
—
U T Readers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Apr. 2025
But the set, in which Dylan played the electric guitar and embraced rock ’n’ roll publicly, was more complicated than a morality play pitting backward folk purists against forward-looking rockers.
—Grant Wong, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Dec. 2024
Both saw foreign policy as a morality play pitting good against evil.
—Jason Fields, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024
In Elia Kazan's still-explosive working-class morality play about a palooka-turned-longshoreman who stands up to union-boss corruption on the docks, Brando is both hypnotic and heartbreakingly human.
—EW.com, 2 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for morality play
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U T Readers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Apr. 2025
But the set, in which Dylan played the electric guitar and embraced rock ’n’ roll publicly, was more complicated than a morality play pitting backward folk purists against forward-looking rockers.
—Grant Wong, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Dec. 2024
Both saw foreign policy as a morality play pitting good against evil.
—Jason Fields, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024
In Elia Kazan's still-explosive working-class morality play about a palooka-turned-longshoreman who stands up to union-boss corruption on the docks, Brando is both hypnotic and heartbreakingly human.
—EW.com, 2 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for morality play
Cite this Entry
“Morality play.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morality%20play. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.
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