English Word Reference Free

audience

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

8 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "audience", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "audience" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "audience" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

audience is aEnglishnoun. It means: A group of people within hearing; specifically, a large gathering of people listening to or watching a performance, speech, etc. Pronounced /ˈɔː.di.əns/. It ranks #1,888 in English word frequency. Often confused with ambience.

Key facts for audience
PropertyValue
Headwordaudience
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈɔː.di.əns/
Letters8
Frequency rank#1,888
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of audience in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for audience is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɔː.di.əns/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,888 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for audience, with forms such as "aduience", "auddience", and "audeince". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "ambience", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is audience, spelled A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A group of people within hearing; specifically, a large gathering of people listening to or watching a performance, speech, etc.
  2. 2
    Hearing; the condition or state of hearing or listening.
  3. 3
    A widespread or nationwide viewing or listening public, as of a TV or radio network or program.
  4. 4
    A formal meeting with a state or religious dignitary.
  5. 5
    The readership of a book or other written publication.
  6. 6
    A following.
  7. 7
    An audiencia (judicial court of the Spanish empire), or the territory administered by it.

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: aduience,auddience,audeince,audiance,audiecne,audiencce,audienec,audiennce,audinece,auidence,uadience

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for audience

Misspelling Variants of "audience"

aduience8auddience9audeince8audiance8audiecne8audiencce9audienec8audiennce9
Misspelling Variants of "audience"

Frequency rank: #1,888 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "audience"?
"audience" is spelled A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈɔː.di.əns/.
What does "audience" mean?
As a noun, "audience" means: A group of people within hearing; specifically, a large gathering of people listening to or watching a performance, speech, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "audience"?
"audience" is commonly confused with "ambience". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "audience"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "audience" is /ˈɔː.di.əns/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "audience"?
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. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.