audienceau‧di‧ence /ˈɔːdiəns $ ˈɒː-, ˈɑː-/ ●●● S2 W2 noun 
The audience began clapping and cheering.audience of an audience of 250 business people One member of the audience described the opera as ‘boring’.2[countable also + plural verb] British English the people who watch or listen to a particular programme, or who see or hear a particular artist’s, writer’s etc work: The show attracts a regular audience of about 20 million.target audience (=the type of people that a programme, advertisement etc is supposed to attract) Goya was one of the first painters to look for a wider audience for his work. The book is not intended for a purely academic audience.3[countable] a formal meeting with a very important personaudience with He was granted an audience with the Pope.GRAMMAR: Singular or plural verb?• Audience is usually followed by a singular verb: · The audience was cheering and shouting.• In British English, you can also use a plural verb: · The audience were cheering and shouting.Grammar guide ‒ NOUNSCOLLOCATIONS– Meaning 1verbsperform/play to an audience· The band played to huge audiences in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.an audience laughs· He has the ability to make an audience laugh.an audience claps· Most of the audience clapped but a few people jeered.an audience cheers· The audience cheered loudly when he came on stage.the audience boos· She swore at the audience and they began to boo her.adjectivesa capacity/packed audience (=the largest number of people who can fit into a hall, theatre etc)· The lecture attracted a capacity audience.an enthusiastic audience· They drew enthusiastic audiences at Europe's biggest rock festival.NOUN + audiencestadium audiences· Celine Dion's tour continues to play to sold-out stadium audiences across Europe.COLLOCATIONS– Meaning 2verbshave an audience· The programme has a massive audience, ranging from children to grandparents.attract an audience (=make people want to watch)· The first show attracted a television audience of more than 2 million.reach an audience· For an advertiser who wants to reach a large audience, television news easily surpasses other news media.appeal to an audience (=be interesting to them)· They brought new fashions into their designs to appeal to a wider audience.ADJECTIVES/NOUN + audiencea large/huge etc audience· Messages posted on the Internet can attract a huge audience.a wide audience· an author who commands a wide audiencea worldwide audience· The game has an ever-increasing worldwide audience.a young/teenage audience· a magazine with a young audiencean older audience· The programme mainly appeals to an older audience.a mass audience (=a very large number of people)· Radio brought entertainment to a mass audience.a television audience (=all the people who watch or listen to a particular programme)· Nearly half the UK television audience watched the programme last Tuesday.the target audience (=the type of people a programme etc aims to attract)· The target audience is mostly men aged 28 to 35.
WORD ORIGINaudience
Origin:
1300-1400 French, Latin audientia ‘hearing’, from audire; ➔ AUDIOEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Actors, wearing masks, came down among the audience.
- I'm not sure that this film will appeal to British audiences.
- MTV's core audience is 18 to 24 year olds.
- The audience consisted mainly of young girls under sixteen.
- The audience danced and clapped and swayed to the music.
- The ad was inappropriate for a family audience.
- The program has an estimated audience of 5 million households.
- The second comedian really made the audience laugh.
- The show has delighted television audiences in the United States and Britain.
- There seemed to be quite a lot of young people in the audience.
- These two programs are both news and current affairs, but they cater for very different audiences.
- WMLD's audience is mainly young and black.
- He wrote with a particular audience in mind and therefore emphasised the points of interest most suited to that audience.
- In a half-hour audience the King's new National Government was created.
- In their presence, the audience could feel its civilized surface annulled and replaced by a consoling sense of unity with nature.
- Some of the 250 people in the audience told the Post they believed the jokes were too harsh.
- The audience is invited to a celebrity reception following the reading.
- We will continue to advertise, and try to improve it, and build an audience.
- Your audience will be confused over it and that will give you a chance to think of something.
THESAURUS
a meeting in which someone is asked questions, to find out if they are suitable for a job, or to help the police find out about a crime. Also used about someone being asked questions on TV, in a newspaper, in a magazine etc: · I’ve got another job interview tomorrow.· Since the police interview, she had changed her statement.· an interview with Keith Richards
an occasion when someone is asked a lot of questions for a long time in order to get information, sometimes using threats, usually by the police or the army: · He claims he was tortured during his interrogation.· Police interrogation methods have been questioned.
an occasion when someone is asked questions about what they have just said, in order to see if they are telling the truth, especially in a court of law: · Under cross-examination, the only witness said she could not be sure about what she saw.
a meeting with a doctor or an expert to discuss treatment or to get advice: · The therapist charges $100 for a half hour consultation.· Would you like to come back for another consultation?
a formal meeting with a very important person: · He was granted an audience with the Pope.
Longman Language Activatorsomeone who listens someone who is listening to a speech, piece of music etc, or who regularly listens to a particular radio programme or station: · He paused momentarily to check that his listeners had fully appreciated the humour of his remark.· The programme already has more than two million listeners across the country.
a group of people who watch and listen to someone speaking or performing in public, or who listen to a radio or television programme or station: · The second comedian really made the audience laugh.· The audience consisted mainly of young girls under sixteen.· WMLD's audience is mainly young and black.· These two programs are both news and current affairs, but they cater for very different audiences.
if someone is a good listener , they always listen carefully and sympathetically when someone else is talking: · Cara's a really good listener, so she always has someone telling her their problems.
someone who watches television or listens to the radio someone who watches television - used especially by people in the television business: · a programme that appeals to younger viewers· Some shows are cancelled before they get a chance to attract any viewers.· The networks have lost a substantial number of viewers to cable and video rentals.
someone who listens to the radio - used especially by people in the radio business: · KCEA, a big-band radio station, relies on money from its listeners to keep running.· The station was flooded with calls from listeners after the show.
all the people who watch or listen to a particular programme: · MTV's core audience is 18 to 24 year olds.· The program has an estimated audience of 5 million households.
informal someone who watches too much television, and does not do other things: · Older adults who exercise are mentally sharper than their couch potato peers.· Use your free time creatively to show children there is more to life than being a couch potato.
someone who is watching an event or performance someone who is watching an event or game: · The game was watched by over 50,000 spectators.· There are no facilities for spectators at the pool.· Someone was juggling in the street, and a small group of spectators had gathered to watch.
someone who watches a television programme - used especially in newspapers and news reports: · The concert was seen by 500 million viewers around the world.· Millions of television viewers tuned in to the president's speech.
a group of people who have come to a place to watch a play, concert, film etc: · Actors, wearing masks, came down among the audience.· I'm not sure that this film will appeal to British audiences.· The show has delighted television audiences in the United States and Britain.in the audience: · There seemed to be quite a lot of young people in the audience.
someone who is watching an event, especially when they did not come specially to watch it but just happened to see it: · The child glanced fearfully around the small circle of onlookers.· The last few runners appeared, to an accompanying cheer from the crowd of onlookers.
someone who watches an event, activity, or situation, especially someone who has been officially sent there in order to report back about it to an organization or country: · She's been sent as an observer to the UN aid conference.· Most political observers believe that the president will now have to resign.· Military observers have been allowed into the area to monitor the ceasefire.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Meaning 1verbs The audience applauded loudly. It’s always different when you perform in front of a live audience (=an audience watching a live performance). entertainment with plenty of audience participation a receptive audienceCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
· The band played to huge audiences in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.
· He has the ability to make an audience laugh.
· Most of the audience clapped but a few people jeered.
· The audience cheered loudly when he came on stage.
· She swore at the audience and they began to boo her.
adjectives (=the largest number of people who can fit into a hall, theatre etc)· The lecture attracted a capacity audience.
· They drew enthusiastic audiences at Europe's biggest rock festival.
NOUN + audience· Celine Dion's tour continues to play to sold-out stadium audiences across Europe.
Meaning 2verbs· The programme has a massive audience, ranging from children to grandparents.
(=make people want to watch)· The first show attracted a television audience of more than 2 million.
· For an advertiser who wants to reach a large audience, television news easily surpasses other news media.
(=be interesting to them)· They brought new fashions into their designs to appeal to a wider audience.
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + audience· Messages posted on the Internet can attract a huge audience.
· an author who commands a wide audience
· The game has an ever-increasing worldwide audience.
· a magazine with a young audience
· The programme mainly appeals to an older audience.
(=a very large number of people)· Radio brought entertainment to a mass audience.
(=all the people who watch or listen to a particular programme)· Nearly half the UK television audience watched the programme last Tuesday.
(=the type of people a programme etc aims to attract)· The target audience is mostly men aged 28 to 35.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES The audience applauded loudly. (=the largest number of people who can fill a theatre, hall etc)· The lecture attracted a capacity audience.
(=the people who watch a film)· His new movie is sure to bring in big cinema audiences.
· It’s nice to see such an enthusiastic crowd at the match.
It’s always different when you perform in front of a live audience (=an audience watching a live performance). entertainment with plenty of audience participation a receptive audience· Else Lynes had also brought along her active class to perform a display item before a most appreciative audience.· Among those literary wanderers of the day who sought a wide and appreciative audience, exaggeration was the fashion.· Only those who want to read do so; the rest form an appreciative audience.· I've even told appreciative audiences at dinner parties about it when I've judged the moment to be right.· Forty years on Marcel's wife Ellen now makes up his appreciative audience.· Nell McCafferty, Bernadette Devlin and other notables vented their feminist spleen at an appreciative audience.· In giving her the chance to shine in front of an appreciative Tory audience Heath probably sealed his own doom.
· Yet to win the big audiences that would attract advertising, the companies had to spend large sums on attractive programmes.· Whatever succeeds in bringing in the biggest audience is not only acceptable but welcomed.· But big audiences meant that country guitarists were quick to realise the benefits of an amplified electric guitar.· In this he had had some success and these days Rana often played in the big capitals before audiences of thousands.· How big are the audiences for sport on television?· The bigger the audience, the bigger the advertising revenue.· To attract bigger audiences was not just a bonus, it was part of the whole logic of the industry.· I wanted to be able to attract a big audience.
· Verbal, as opposed to written, reports give you more freedom to exploit your captive audience.· Father Tim saw at once that the truest meaning of the term captive audience was being demonstrated right before his eyes.· He was a real showman, and however he was feeling, he always rose to the bait of a captive audience!· And so when I talk to a young person I have a captive audience.· His family were a captive audience, especially at meal times, which were central to their day.· But beyond the hedge, Mundin had run into a captive audience.· He really loved the hairdressing profession as it gave him a captive audience to bounce his latest jokes off.· Many education officials derided the effort as exploitation of a captive youth audience.
· Ever an initiator, Jo took the work out to a range of different audiences.· Students can rewrite an explanation for a different audience, such as their younger brothers and sisters.· In contrast to television, the press was highly differentiated: different papers reached very different audiences with very different messages.· Artistic director Christopher Gable has injected it with a new lease of life and brought it to a completely different audience.· John Ward had a rather different audience.· Yes-but we need to distinguish between these different audiences when presenting research results.· It would not affect different audiences in different ways.
· He excelled in conveying information in a palatable, humorous, and exciting form to a general audience.· In writing a book for a general audience, I have relied heavily on the research of experts in the field.· There is a rising interest both at colleges and with general audiences, and it has been recently popularised by television.
· When you talk to a large audience in a positive way, some critics don't dig that.· Returning missionaries spoke to large audiences who were eager to hear how their efforts elevated the heathen.· In democratic societies it is inevitable that politicians will be attracted to large audiences.· For the next four years it drew critical plaudits and large audiences everywhere it was shown.· The first uses large, two metres tall puppets which can be easily seen by large audiences.· Television will bring these Olympics to a larger audience than any previous sporting event.· Nevertheless it was felt that the papers deserved a wider circulation because of their intrinsic interest to a larger audience.
· By all means read some of these but there is no substitute for practising on a live audience.· The comedian expressed doubts about his ability to perform without a live audience, but agreed to do it.· Or is it to be videoed in front of a live audience with the risk of loosing some of the dialogue?· I like writing for live audiences with no agenda at all except to enjoy the work.· We had a live audience of one, Richard's wife, Elizabeth Taylor.· I had been in television studios before but never with a live audience, so that was a bit different.· The programme was filmed in front of a live audience who had to clap, laugh and commiserate in all the appropriate places.· The experience of watching some one lecture to a live audience is very different from being there yourself.
· These ideas were expounded to mass audiences.· Only television can reach a truly mass audience.· This is to be avoided at all costs if the channel is to remain a mass audience broadcaster.· The mass audiences and the technology for reaching them are what give the press and electronic media their character as mass media.· Radio brought entertainment to a mass audience, in particular light musical entertainment: it produced the age of the great dance bands.· At present, radio is the only communication medium in the country which has achieved a mass audience.· Today the terrible injustice done to those prisoners reaches a mass audience.· The new audience was a mass audience but no previous audience in history had ever been given so much careful attention.
· Indeed, Freemantle not only provided Leapor with a receptive audience for her mature work, but actively promoted it.· She'd had a really good, receptive, large audience.
· He then took from his pocket a filthy blue handkerchief, reversing it so that his small audience could examine both sides.· Laurent, presented a show of only 29 models to a small, select audience.· Platform services supervisor Bob Tryanor made the presentation before a small audience of platform staff.· At best the ads would attract a very small incremental audience to the network.· If so, be prepared for a small audience and accusations of favouritism.· The small audience had begun to fidget on their rickety folded chairs.· In general, keep animation files small or your audience will have disappeared by the time they've downloaded and run.· As a result, a smaller than average audience was there to hear Bobby's current band.
· The debate is a profound one and it is only just beginning to reach out to a wider audience.· Curtis, who rates an above-average 32, seems like the better choice to appeal to a wider audience.· But language, because of its complexity and its technicalities can not easily be revealed to a wide audience.· Among those literary wanderers of the day who sought a wide and appreciative audience, exaggeration was the fashion.· An original fusion of music, film, movement, text and design accessible to a wide audience.· It is being incorporated into the World Wide Web browsers such as NetScape, giving it a wider audience.· A large section is devoted to Peter Leonard of Soho whose graceful gothic shapes in slender metal certainly deserve a wider audience.· Worse, Apple had stopped bundling MacPaint with every Macintosh, depriving Atkinson of the widest possible audience.
· He will be taking the young audience on an exciting musical safari to meet animals from around the world.· He had to admit it was an ingenious way to phrase the question to a young audience.· I think they are a young audience and a gig-going audience who like to buy exciting records.· The tempo is usually fast since some programmers believe that fast-paced news programs attract younger audiences.· The site ran a feature about the recently pierced singer, in an attempt to attract a younger audience.· But there was no denying the passion of this young audience.· In a weird symmetry, Hendrix, with his young white-teen audience, was a sixties equivalent of Chuck Berry.
NOUN· As an audience member, you can give much of your attention to evaluation.· Another audience member expresses her frustration: Are we talking about a chemical imbalance?· In one event after another, audience members from diverse backgrounds asked questions that focused as much on writing as on reading.· We have a nightclub act in central Massachusetts where we sing while drawing caricatures of audience members.· The recording was made in a Hamburg nightclub on a portable tape recorder by audience member Edward W Taylor.· Beyond the lights, Cameron got the impression of audience members thronging the exits, trying to get out of the concert hall.· Beyond the monster human cyclone of a moshpit, audience member stood frozen like rabbits in the glare of juggernaut halogens.
· There's a sort of audience participation because nobody can control these crowds.· Brown is deft at handling audience participation.· This is a good trick for audience participation.· During the movie, though, my audience participation mostly took the form of loud, raucous laughter.· Practical examples called for willing audience participation to drive the message home: Chemistry is everywhere - and it's fun.· I was booing and hissing the bad guys with the best of them, and I usually hate audience participation.· Consequently, the enjoyable show relied heavily on voluntary audience participation to act out the battle scenes.· I know it's time for audience participation.
· It's controlled from a panel above the studio audience.· The show was certainly not as great as the studio audience apparently felt it was.· He did so, and he looked like the questioner in the studio audience rather than the answerer.· Nobody was using a studio audience and that was an accident.· Inside the studio we were brought back sharply to reality by a studio audience, all of whom shared two characteristics.· It simply involves Morton, a small studio audience and the cameras.· It was five or ten minutes before they and the studio audience could control themselves.· The studio audience at the Sally Jessy Raphael show roared approval.
· Some 60m pieces of diamond jewellery are sold every year, indicating a sizeable target audience.· The key is to analyze the target audience, Half said.· It is worth reiterating here the point that the media offer a means of influencing your target audiences.· The team rejected traditional Biblical phrasing, figuring they would be unfamiliar or unappealing to the target audience.· But, as Mr Malik kept reminding him, this was not the target audience of the school.· The target audience should be identified giving details of level and syllabuses to which the program relates.· The key target audience for the reports was overwhelmingly stated as being the company's own employees.· Every radio station needs a target audience.
· A generation of sell-out shows and peak-time television audiences witnessed the Black and White shows.· The truth was that by 1988 the television audience had entirely replaced the convention delegates as the focus of attention.· Such agencies utilise consumer panels, readership surveys and television audience measurement to generate their information. 17.· Meanwhile, three other candidates demonstrated for a national television audience their growing irrelevance to the struggle for the nomination.· Hardly surprising then that budgets were kept low and most films were aimed at the television audience.· A national network television audience can judge for itself when the Suns visit the Lakers and attempt to break a two-game skid.· These are all editorial choices, and few of them create positive images for television audiences.· Pilobolus now performs for stage and television audiences all over the world.
VERB· Administrator Michael Barnes was given a standing ovation after addressing the audience.· Gabriel, acting as narrator and addressing the audience throughout, comes to realize he has never truly known his wife.· It did not disconcert Sly that he found himself addressing an audience who were all wearing false dingo ears.· He said he found this a useful trick when addressing restive or sleepy audiences.· It can be said he was addressing a captive audience ... of stooges.· They have to address an unseen audience through the camera and they can prepare a script for their talk.· On 22 April there was a mass rally at the Albert Hall where Mosley addressed an audience of 10,000 supporters.
· The Final will attract the largest audience of any previous sporting event in world history.· The tempo is usually fast since some programmers believe that fast-paced news programs attract younger audiences.· His televised trial attracted huge audiences.· They attract an audience with varied interests and offer on-line access to the greatest number of users throughout the United States.· The real challenge will be to attract an audience and advertisers against formidable rivals.· Some news show consultants believe in forming a television news pseudo-family to attract audiences.· Why, for instance, are musicals assumed to be are the only way of attracting a popular audience?· Skating may not have to rely much longer on such naked attempts at attracting audiences.
· Unfortunately, both clubs went bust just as we were starting to draw a decent audience!· First, such programming draws huge audiences, which suggests that people are interested in both the subject matter and the subjects.· They will be the first new episodes since the 1996 Christmas show, which drew an audience of 24m.· I found myself being drawn out into the audience.· Old repeats of the show have drawn in huge audiences and the sales of the videos have reached the millions.· But they are in a competitive business, under pressure from executive producers, sales managers, and sponsors to draw audiences.· His voice rose to a howl and drew the audience up with it into an excited, almost exalted, crescendo.· Minstrel shows drew a good audience and visiting theater companies played at the Brooks Opera House.
· An elderly woman threatened to kill herself unless she was granted a brief audience.· And you took too much for granted by assuming your audience was familiar with sponges.· Why should he suddenly grant you an audience?· The delegates had to return without the satisfaction of having been granted an audience.· At the end of the conference the participants were granted an audience with the Pope.
· Dave Thomas, spokesman for the band, said it was a good opportunity for the band to reach a wider audience.· Typically, these messages travel over the Internet, where they reach a worldwide audience.· Conferences and seminars as well as publications will ensure that research results reach a wider interested audience.· We wanted to help the men who reached the audience and knew the music.· As with Galileo, he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience.· Businesses and publications are leaving on-line services for the Internet as a way to reach a wider audience.· It also wants to give higher priority to art in education in order to reach a wider audience.· Today the terrible injustice done to those prisoners reaches a mass audience.
· He had learned, he told his audience, that rumours have spread among you of my intention to abolish serfdom.· His own rise from the bottom of the heap guarantees that he understands problems of a class-ridden society, he tells audiences.· We don't hold up placards telling the audience what to do.· The company has a habit of telling its audience exactly what it wants to hear.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► crowd-pleaser/audience-pleaser etc
1[countable] a group of people who come to watch and listen to someone speaking or performing in public: - And so when I talk to a young person I have a captive audience.
- But beyond the hedge, Mundin had run into a captive audience.
- Father Tim saw at once that the truest meaning of the term captive audience was being demonstrated right before his eyes.
- He really loved the hairdressing profession as it gave him a captive audience to bounce his latest jokes off.
- He was a real showman, and however he was feeling, he always rose to the bait of a captive audience!
- His family were a captive audience, especially at meal times, which were central to their day.
- It can be said he was addressing a captive audience ... of stooges.
- Verbal, as opposed to written, reports give you more freedom to exploit your captive audience.
- It is worth reiterating here the point that the media offer a means of influencing your target audiences.
- Most of its students are the provincial poor, the target audience of leftist guerrilla groups.
- Providing prevention materials to state health departments will ensure that target groups have ready access to such materials.
- The target areas were both moderate. income tracts of South Phoenix. 4.
- The approach involves identifying variations in the functioning of target areas and relating those variations to known differences in cortical function.
- The key is to analyze the target audience, Half said.
- The other major target group is those hospitalised with infectious illnesses.
- We know the terrain in the target area is complicated, rugged.
The audience began clapping and cheering.audience of an audience of 250 business people One member of the audience described the opera as ‘boring’.2[countable also + plural verb] British English the people who watch or listen to a particular programme, or who see or hear a particular artist’s, writer’s etc work: The show attracts a regular audience of about 20 million.target audience (=the type of people that a programme, advertisement etc is supposed to attract) Goya was one of the first painters to look for a wider audience for his work. The book is not intended for a purely academic audience.3[countable] a formal meeting with a very important personaudience with He was granted an audience with the Pope.GRAMMAR: Singular or plural verb?• Audience is usually followed by a singular verb: · The audience was cheering and shouting.• In British English, you can also use a plural verb: · The audience were cheering and shouting.Grammar guide ‒ NOUNSCOLLOCATIONS– Meaning 1verbsperform/play to an audience· The band played to huge audiences in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.an audience laughs· He has the ability to make an audience laugh.an audience claps· Most of the audience clapped but a few people jeered.an audience cheers· The audience cheered loudly when he came on stage.the audience boos· She swore at the audience and they began to boo her.adjectivesa capacity/packed audience (=the largest number of people who can fit into a hall, theatre etc)· The lecture attracted a capacity audience.an enthusiastic audience· They drew enthusiastic audiences at Europe's biggest rock festival.NOUN + audiencestadium audiences· Celine Dion's tour continues to play to sold-out stadium audiences across Europe.COLLOCATIONS– Meaning 2verbshave an audience· The programme has a massive audience, ranging from children to grandparents.attract an audience (=make people want to watch)· The first show attracted a television audience of more than 2 million.reach an audience· For an advertiser who wants to reach a large audience, television news easily surpasses other news media.appeal to an audience (=be interesting to them)· They brought new fashions into their designs to appeal to a wider audience.ADJECTIVES/NOUN + audiencea large/huge etc audience· Messages posted on the Internet can attract a huge audience.a wide audience· an author who commands a wide audiencea worldwide audience· The game has an ever-increasing worldwide audience.a young/teenage audience· a magazine with a young audiencean older audience· The programme mainly appeals to an older audience.a mass audience (=a very large number of people)· Radio brought entertainment to a mass audience.a television audience (=all the people who watch or listen to a particular programme)· Nearly half the UK television audience watched the programme last Tuesday.the target audience (=the type of people a programme etc aims to attract)· The target audience is mostly men aged 28 to 35.