A soap opera is a drama series about the daily lives of a regular cast. Watch a soap opera.
It never ends, which is the whole shape of the form. A soap opera can run for sixty years and outlive most of its original cast.
1nounsoap operaA drama series about the daily lives of a regular cast.
“The soap opera has been running since before the actors were born.”
soap opera is a programme.
Named from the soap and detergent advertisements broadcast during the shows, aimed at women doing the cleaning.
From the soap and detergent commercials originally broadcast during the shows, which were aimed at the audience of women who were doing their cleaning; opera from the melodramatic character of the shows, as the earlier horse opera.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA