mon·o·logue

also mon·o·log (mŏn′ə-lôg′, -lŏg′)

a. A lengthy, uninterrupted speech by a single character, as in a play or novel.

b. A literary composition in monologue form.

2. A continuous series of jokes or comic stories delivered by one comedian.

3. A long speech made by one person, often monopolizing a conversation.

v. mon·o·logued, mon·o·logu·ing, mon·o·logues also mon·o·logged or mon·o·log·ging or mon·o·logs

v.intr.

To give or perform a monologue.

v.tr.

To address a monologue to.

[French : Greek mono-, mono- + Greek -logos, -logue.]

mon′o·log′ic (-lŏj′ĭk), mon′o·log′i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj.

mon′o·logu′ist (mŏn′ə-lôg′ĭst, -lŏg′-), mo·nol′o·gist (mə-nŏl′ə-jĭst, mŏn′ə-lôg′ĭst, -lŏg′-) n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

monologist - an entertainer who performs alone

performer, performing artist - an entertainer who performs a dramatic or musical work for an audience

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

But in spite of the dramatic rudeness which is sometimes of the idiosyncrasy, the true and native colour of his multitudinous dramatis personae, or monologists, Mr.

View in context

"I DON'T ALWAYS TRY TO PASS AS A MAN, although people often think I am one," says Peggy Shaw, a veteran monologist and actor whose latest piece, Menopausal Gentleman, features Shaw as a suave, "Frank Sinatra type of butch lesbian" struggling with menopause.

A MENOPAUSAL GENTLEMAN

Other explorations of the Yankee character are found in the crackerbarrel philosopher Hosea Biglow and the intemperate scoundrel Birdofredum Sawin in the dialect poems of James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers (1848, 1867), and in the witty monologist who held forth with sophistication and brilliance around a boardinghouse table in <IR> OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES' </IR> Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858).

Humor in the United States

For example, the famous Egyptian monologist, Mahmoud Shokoko, used to be dressed as El Aragoz while performing.

Hamza Bahaa to lead a stand-up comedy workshop at Alwan

Unlike their novelist and monologist compeers, many Victorian lyricists generate hauntingly vague and undeveloped voices that cannot be connected to an identifiable setting or a well-characterized individual.

Technologies of Forgetting: Phonographs, Lyric Voice, and Rossetti's Woodspurge

This month, in honor of the 40th anniversary of California Shakespeare Theater, monologist Mike Daisey (whose previous offerings include The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and How Theater Failed America) will take on the Bard in a four-night event titled The Great Tragedies: Mike Daisey Takes on Shakespeare.

Shakespeare with a side of Daisey

Highlights of the North East-bred programme include Oh, The Humanity, Northern Stage's revival (now co-produced with Soho Theatre) of five playlets by celebrated New York monologist Will Eno; Unfolding Theatre's Best in the World which considers what it means to be the very best at what you do (prompted by darts player Phil 'The Power' Taylor); and improv legends The Suggestibles who will provide one of many quirky single performances.

Boldly going north; Northern Stage are crossing the border this month and offering an Edinburgh showcase for first-rate theatre from the north of England. Sam Wonfor reports THEATRE

The late Spalding Gray gets another chance to talk in "And Everything is Going Fine," which, despite Steven Soderbergh's forceful direction, works hauntingly well as the monologist's posthumous autobiography.

And Everything is Going Fine

Vonna-Michell, a monologist in the tradition of Spalding Gray, is infatuated with his own life, propelled by an acute self-consciousness.

Tris Vonna-Michell: Milliken

In other words, the only speaker in an interior monologue is the monologist, who is also the focal character and who should be the one who sees.

Windows of focalization: deconstructing and reconstructing a narratological concept