Other forms: audiences
An audience is all the people sitting and watching a show. A large audience, the audience applauded, an audience of thousands.
It takes a singular or plural verb in British English — the audience was, the audience were — depending on whether it is thought of as one body or many people. In publishing, an audience is the readership a work is aimed at. An audience with somebody is a formal meeting granted by a person of rank. Note that the word means literally a hearing.
1nounaudienceAll the people watching or listening to something.
“The audience clapped and cheered at the end of the show.”
2nounmeetingA formal meeting granted by somebody of rank.
“The ambassador was granted an audience with the king.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
audience is a group of onlookers.
Latin audientia comes from audire, to hear. Audio, audit and obey come from the same hearing, so an audience is a body of hearers rather than watchers.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ew-
Latin
audientia
Old French
audience
Middle French
audience
Middle English
audience
English, today
audience
Built from
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”). a doublet of audiencia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA