audition
/ɔːˈdɪʃ(ə)n
/noun
1An interview for a role or job as a singer, actor, dancer, or musician, consisting of a practical demonstration of the candidate’s suitability and skill: the Royal Ballet gave Nicola an audition...
- The Columbia Men's Ensemble will be holding auditions for experienced singers on Oct. 4.
- All of its members learn the trade through acting workshops, hands-on experience as extras, or auditions for other roles.
- Following a rigorous round of auditions and interviews Tony was chosen ahead of hundreds of others a fortnight ago to take up the one year course.
2 [mass noun] archaic The power of hearing or listening.Stanley Coren has studied human perception and its development, primarily in the areas of vision and audition....
- The diagrams in Appendix B assume an idealized listening environment in which every audience member shares the same point of audition.
- As it transpires upon careful audition, the individual numbers themselves are far more exquisite than their corresponding visual icons indicate.
verb [no object]
1Perform an audition: I auditioned and was lucky enough to get the part...
- He is not helped by his dialogue, nor the direction, which makes him deliver the two big speeches as if he were auditioning for the part.
- You feel the precocious Dinah is auditioning for the show rather than extending the narrative.
- She was working as the director's assistant and she told him about a new drama that she was auditioning for.
1.1 [with object] Assess the suitability of (someone) for a role by means of an audition: she was auditioning people for her new series...
- He fell in love with Bening on screen, then auditioned her for the role of his lover in the film Bugsy.
- Almost a hundred actors were auditioned for the role, but James Mackenzie from Edinburgh stood out from the beginning.
- He came to the English department to audition the girls for the lead role.
Derivatives
auditionee
- However, a good auditionee doesn't always deliver the goods onstage afterwards.
- To this the auditionee exclaimed with obvious admiration, "Way up there?"
- There have been cases whereby judges bypass talent when viewers thought maybe an auditionee deserved to go through to the next round.
auditioner
- Sight reading and ensemble materials will be supplied by the auditioner.
- As he said to one auditioner: "What angers me is that people like yourself who have the most attitude have the least talent."
- Indeed, I had no sooner picked up the compulsory readings than I discovered there was no line before me, and the last auditioner was just walking out of the room.
Origin
Late 16th century (in the sense 'power of hearing or listening'): from Latin auditio(n-), from audire 'hear'. Sense 1 of the noun dates from the late 19th century.