[dram-uh-tis per-soh-nee, drah-muh-] 
| 1. | (used with a plural verb ) the characters in a play. |
| 2. | (used with a singular verb) a list of the characters preceding the text of a play. |
| dram·a·tis per·so·nae (drām'ə-tĭs pər-sō'nē, drä'mə-tĭs pər-sō'nī') pl.n.
[Latin drāmatis, genitive of drāma, drama + persōnae, pl. of persōna, character.] |
A Latin expression for “cast of characters.” It means literally “the persons of the drama” and is occasionally used at the beginning of scripts for plays as the title of the list of characters.
Note: In general, the “dramatis personae” are the participants in an event: “Winston Churchill, Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin were the dramatis personae at the Yalta Conference.”