monologue
/ˈmɒn(ə)lɒɡ
/noun
1A long speech by one actor in a play or film, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast programme: he was reciting some of the great monologues of Shakespeare he had a long and exacting monologue at the end of the film...
- The play starts off with an actor rehearsing a monologue for an acting competition.
- The lights would rise on each musician as they had their solos, like theatrical monologues, then fade back into the darkness.
- I was wondering if you have written anything you feel would be appropriate as a theatrical monologue.
Synonyms
soliloquy, speech, address, lecture, oration, sermon, homily;
dramatic monologue, interior monologue
informal spiel
1.1A long, tedious speech by one person during a conversation: Fred carried on with his monologue as if I hadn’t spoken...
- However, I find conversations more interesting than monologues.
- Naturally, because I was talking to him in my head, the whole conversation was a monologue, and it was all about me.
- The brother entered into a monologue, the sort-of conversation that I had had with him a couple of weeks ago.
Derivatives
monologic
- By the end of the eighteenth-century, religious discourse was no longer clearly monologic, but more of a controlled dialogue.
- The oration in the Menexenus, despite its monologic form, is thoroughly dialogical thanks to Socrates' parodic appropriation of the conventions of epitaphios logos.
- Carnival is the feast of the people; carnival and the marketplace stand in marked contrast throughout the novel to the monologic authority of the serious governing class.
monological
- He reminds us how we need to avoid monological thinking that all actions must be non-violent.
- How are we to understand such performances of meaning in view of our currently theory - driven monological and individualistic methods of research?
- The ability to follow a monological narrative or argument from beginning to end seems to have been diminished, along with the habit and taste for reading.
monologist
- A talented actor and monologist, he has won critical acclaim for his one-man shows and diverse body of film work.
- Jeremiah is as likeable as your average drunk monologist - amusing company as long as he sticks to anecdote and steers clear of personal prejudices.
- I loved him because besides being a great monologist and the best straight man ever, he looked and reminded me of my father.
monologize
- Equally, I have seen him swiftly clear a Brussels bar as he monologised on with interesting facts and oddities about his life and times in committee room 1156B of the European Parliament.
- His interior monologizing can also serve to indicate distance rather than empathy.
- Although the fool of the novel, Tessa calls into question the monologizing patriarchal tradition.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from French, from Greek monologos 'speaking alone'.
monocle from mid 19th century:
This goes back to Latin monoculus ‘one-eyed’ in contrast with binoculars (recorded from E18th, but only from 1871 in the normal modern sense) which are used with both eyes. The element mono ‘one’, which was borrowed by Latin from Greek, is found in many words including monochrome (mid 17th century) combined with Greek chroma ‘colour’; monogamy (early 17th century) with gamos ‘marriage; monologue (mid 17th century) with logos ‘word, speech’; and monopoly (mid 16th century) from polein ‘sell’.