monology

English

Etymology

From mono- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /məˈnɒləd͡ʒi/

Noun

monology (countable and uncountable, plural monologies)

1. The habit of soliloquizing, or of monopolizing conversation.
   • 1860, Thomas De Quincey, “Conversation”, in Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected; and Other Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XIV), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 171:

     It was not, therefore, by an insolent usurpation that [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge persisted in monology through his whole life, but in virtue of a concession from the kindness and respect of his friends.

   • 1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings:

     Miriam would only speed up in her speech when she 'forgot' the presence of others, when she was, as it were, enveloped in monology.

2. (rare, countable) A work consisting of a single part (as opposed to a dilogy, trilogy, etc.)

Anagrams

• nomology

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “monology”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)