audience Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public) performance
    • the audience applauded
    • someone in the audience began to cough
  2. noun 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
  3. noun an opportunity to state your case and be heard
    hearing.
    • they condemned him without a hearing
    • he saw that he had lost his audience
  4. noun a conference (usually with someone important)
    interview; consultation.
    • he had a consultation with the judge
    • he requested an audience with the king

WordNet

Au"di*ence noun
Etymology
F. audience, L. audientia, fr. audire to hear. See Audible, a.
Definitions
  1. The act of hearing; attention to sounds.
    Thou, therefore, give due audience, and attend. Milton.
  2. Admittance to a hearing; a formal interview, esp. with a sovereign or the head of a government, for conference or the transaction of business.
    According to the fair play of the world, Let me have audience: I am sent to speak. Shak.
  3. An auditory; an assembly of hearers. Also applied by authors to their readers.
    Fit audience find, though few. Milton.
    He drew his audience upward to the sky. Dryden.

Webster 1913