Audiovisual

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌɔː.di.əʊˈvɪ.zjʊ.əl/

Definitions

1. This term refers to formats that engage both sight and hearing simultaneously to enhance the communication of information and ideas
2. Describing materials that combine visual and auditory elements, this phrase points to a comprehensive experience for the audience
3. This expression denotes media that integrates visual and audio components to deliver information or entertainment in a cohesive manner

Etymology: The word is a simple compound: "audio-" joined to "visual." The first part comes from Latin "audio," meaning "I hear" or "I listen," and the Latin root goes back to a Proto-Italic form meaning roughly "to hear." English took "audio-" as a combining form, adding a Latin-derived stem to the front of an existing English word, so the combination reads literally as "hearing-and-seeing." "Visual" has its own older history, descending from Latin "visualis," itself from "visus," the past participle of "videre," "to see." English has used "visual" as an adjective since the late 1500s, so the new element is the pairing rather than either half. The combined form arose in the twentieth century, when audio and visual technologies such as film with soundtracks, radio with pictures and later television began to be discussed together as a single category.

Synonyms: multimedia, sound and vision