Audiences

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Various groups of people assembled to watch or experience a live performance or presentation
2. Collections of attendees gathered to witness a specific event, such as a concert, play, or film
3. Groups of individuals present at a live presentation or entertainment event ; people who receive or consume media, communication, or performances

Etymology: "Audiences" is the plural of "audience", so the history belongs to the singular. The root is the Latin verb "audiō", meaning "to hear", and the "audience" that was once a crowd of listeners began as the act of listening itself. Its Latin descendant "audientia" carried the sense of a hearing or an attentive listening, and the English word kept this sense of being heard before it came to mean the people doing the listening. The word arrived in English through Middle French and Old French, which had taken it from Latin. Over time the meaning shifted from the act of hearing toward the people who gather to hear, and eventually to those who watch as well as listen. Today "audiences" can describe the crowd in a theatre, a concert hall, or a lecture room, all united by the same act of attention that the Latin verb first named.

Synonyms: viewers, spectators, listeners, crowds, gatherings