diorama

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a three-dimensional model or display of a scene, often with figures arranged before a painted background

   The museum's diorama showed wolves crossing a snowy forest at dusk.

Borrowed from French diorama, coined in 1822 from Ancient Greek dia- ("through, across") + horama ("sight, view"). The original diorama was a large painted scene whose appearance changed with controlled lighting; the word later shifted to three-dimensional displays.

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