audience

/ˈɔː.di.əns/

//ˈɔː.di.əns// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"audience" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“audience” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,888. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,888
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A group of people within hearing; specifically, a large gathering of people listening to or watching a performance, speech, etc.

Corpus desk

Index EN-audience · audience · English

audience · rank #1,888 · 11 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,888
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH arm

Nearest frequency peer: arm (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “audience”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “audience” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

audience vs ambience
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

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 seat of misspelling magnet “audience”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).audiencelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “arm” (#1,887), “bay” (#1,889), “Angeles” (#1,886). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “audience” is #1,888. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around audience (IPA /ˈɔː.di.əns/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,888 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for audience, with forms such as "aduience", "auddience", and "audeince". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. 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. The correct English form is audience, spelled A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how audience appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. We joined the audience just as the lights went down.
  2. One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily…

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

hearershiplistenershipspectatorscrowd

This word in other languages

audiencia(Español)assistance(Français)Publikum(Deutsch)público(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • aduience
  • auddience
  • audeince
  • audiance
  • audiecne
  • audiencce
  • audienec
  • audiennce
  • audinece
  • auidence
  • uadience

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of audience - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

aduience2auddience1audeince2audiance1audiecne2audiencce1audienec2audiennce1
Edit distance from "audience"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "audience", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

accounts#1,885teachers#1,882strategy#1,881religion#1,877

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

magazine11 variantsmedicine11 variantsmention11 variantsmountain11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list