audience
au·dience
noun
a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public) performance
- “the audience applauded”
- “someone in the audience began to cough”
the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment
- “every artist needs an audience”
- “the broadcast reached an audience of millions”
an opportunity to state your case and be heard
- “they condemned him without a hearing”
- “he saw that he had lost his audience”
a conference (usually with someone important)
- “he had a consultation with the judge”
- “he requested an audience with the king”
Origin
From Middle English audience, from Middle French audience, from Old French audience, from Latin audientia, from present participle audiēns (“hearing”), from verb audiō (“to hear”). Doublet of audiencia.
Phrases
- audience effect
- audience hall
- audience left
- audience right
- audience surrogate
- audience wave
- captive audience
- captive audience meeting
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
Narrower terms
Parts
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.