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Today, audition most often refers to an artistic performance, but that wasn’t always the case. Audition has roots in the Latin verb audīre meaning “to hear,” and was first used in the late 16th century to refer to the power or sense of hearing. Audīre is also the root of such hearing-related words in English as audible (“capable of being heard”), audience (which first meant “the act or state of hearing”), and the combining form audio-, which appears in various words relating to sound. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that the noun audition began being used for an entertainer’s trial performance. And the verb audition, meaning “to test or try out in an audition,” didn’t appear on the English language stage until the mid-20th century.
Examples of audition in a Sentence
Amaris Encinas, USA Today, 7 June 2025
Did No Time to Die essentially serve as Ana de Armas’ audition for Eve Macarro?
—Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 6 June 2025
Jordan Moreau, Variety, 27 May 2025
Here are 19 actors who auditioned for lead roles in The Hunger Games franchise.
—Kelsie Gibson, People.com, 24 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for audition
Cite this Entry
“Audition.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audition. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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audition
1 of 2 noun
audition
2 of 2 verbMedical Definition
audition
noun
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