audience
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French audience, from Latin audientia, from present participle audiens "hearing", from verb audio, "I hear".
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
audience (plural audiences)
- (now rare) Hearing; the condition or state of hearing or listening. [from 14th c.]
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke VII:
- When he had ended all his sayinges in the audience of the people, he entred into Capernaum.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke VII:
- A group of people within hearing; specifically a group of people listening to a performance, speech etc.; the crowd seeing a stage performance. [from 15th c.]
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, The Mirror and the Lamp:
- One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
- We joined the audience just as the lights went down.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, The Mirror and the Lamp:
- A formal meeting with a state or religious dignitary. [from 16th c.]
- She managed to get an audience with the Pope.
- The readership of a book or other written publication. [from 19th c.]
- "Private Eye" has a small but faithful audience.
- A following. [from 20th c.]
- The opera singer expanded his audience by singing songs from the shows.
Usage notes[edit]
- In some dialects, audience is used as a plurale tantum.
- The audience are getting restless.
Synonyms[edit]
- hearership, listenership
- (group of people seeing a performance): spectators, crowd
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
group of people seeing a performance
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readership of a written publication
formal meeting with a state or religious dignitary
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
קהל-מעריצים (qhal-ma'aritzym) m (3); מפגש (mifgash) m (4)
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External links[edit]
French[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin audientia, from present participle audiens "hearing", from verb audio, "I hear".
Noun[edit]
audience f (plural audiences)
