Monologue

//ˈmɒnəlɒɡ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A long speech by one person in a play; sometimes a soliloquy; other times spoken to other characters.
  2. 2
    a (usually long) dramatic speech by a single actor wordnet
  3. 3
    A long series of comic stories and jokes as an entertainment.
  4. 4
    a long utterance by one person (especially one that prevents others from participating in the conversation) wordnet
  5. 5
    A long, uninterrupted utterance that monopolizes a conversation.
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  1. 6
    speech you make to yourself wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To deliver a monologue.

    "Powerful parents, in her formulation, feeling themselves autonomous and powerful, give autonomy and power to their children; powerless ones, feeling themselves passive and controlled, in turn exert an excessive control on their children, and monologue at them, instead of having a dialogue with them."

Synonyms

All synonyms
soliloquysoliloquyantimasqueasideaudience successballet

Example

More examples

"A person's silent discussion with themselves is called "inner monologue"."

Etymology

First attested in c. 1550. Borrowed from Middle French monologue, modeled on dialogue, ultimately from Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “soliloquy, monologue”). By surface analysis, mono- + -logue.

Related phrases

interior monologueinternal monologue

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.