audience
See also: audiencë
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowing from Old French audience, from Latin audientia, from present participle audiens "hearing", from verb audio (“I hear”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
audience (plural audiences)
- A group of people within hearing; specifically, a large gathering of people listening to or watching a performance, speech, etc. [from 15th c.]
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1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in 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.
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- (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 widespread or nationwide viewing or listening public, as of a TV or radio network or program.
- A formal meeting with a state or religious dignitary. [from 16th c.]
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She managed to get an audience with the Pope.
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- The readership of a book or other written publication. [from 19th c.]
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"Private Eye" has a small but faithful audience.
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- A following. [from 20th c.]
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The opera singer expanded his audience by singing songs from the shows.
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Usage notes[edit]
- In some dialects, audience is used as a plurale tantum.
- The audience are getting restless.
Synonyms[edit]
- hearership, listenership
- (large gathering of people watching 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 dignitary
following
- 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 Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading[edit]
French[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French audience, a borrowing from Latin audientia, from present participle audiens "hearing", from verb audio, "I hear".
Noun[edit]
audience f (plural audiences)
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “audience” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with usage examples
- French terms with audio links
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French countable nouns
