Audient
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A hearer; a member of an audience. uncommon
"The audients of her ſad ſtorie, felt great motions both of pitie and admiration for her miſfortunes: […]"
- 2 A catechumen (“convert to Christianity under instruction before baptism”) in the early Christian Church. obsolete, specifically
"This aforesaid doctor [John Chrysostom] in divers places of his writings both sharply and grievously reproveth his audients for their slack coming unto the Lord's table, and exhorteth them many times in the year, yea, daily (if they have pure minds) to come unto the holy communion."
- 1 Listening, paying attention. not-comparable
"The prosochist is that person whom the noun itself designates by means of an audient intonation, an audient indication, or an audient comma, as the paricular individual to whose notice the par-e-theme presents the different objects mntioned, or implied, in the sentence; as, Master, I have brought unto thee my son. (Master.)"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The prosochist is that person whom the noun itself designates by means of an audient intonation, an audient indication, or an audient comma, as the paricular individual to whose notice the par-e-theme presents the different objects mntioned, or implied, in the sentence; as, Master, I have brought unto thee my son. (Master.)"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin audientem, accusative singular of audiēns (“hearing, listening; attending, paying attention to”) (or directly from audiēns), the present active participle of audiō (“to hear, listen to; to attend, pay attention to”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis (“clearly, manifestly”) (from *h₂ew- (“to perceive, see”)) + *dʰh₁-ye/o- (“to render”). The noun may be borrowed from Late Latin audiēns (“catechumen”), from the participle audiēns.
Related phrases
More for "audient"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.