audition

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The Word of the Day for December 20 is:=20

audition   \aw-DISH-un\   noun
          1 : the power or sense of hearing=20
     2 : the act of hearing; especially : a critical hearing=20
    *3 : a trial performance to appraise an entertainer's merits=20

Example sentence:
          The theater company is holding auditions today for the role of=
 the play's central character.

Did you know?
          Today, "audition" most often refers to a theatrical or musical=
 tryout, but that wasn't always the case. "Audition" is rooted in the La=
tin verb "audire," meaning "to hear," and was first used in the late 16t=
h century to refer to the power or sense of hearing. "Audire" is also th=
e root of such "hearing" words in English as "audible," "audience" (whic=
h first meant "the act or state of hearing"), and the prefix "audio-," w=
hich appears in various words relating to sound. It wasn't until late 19=
th century that the noun "audition" began being used for an entertainer'=
s trial performance. And the verb "audition," meaning "to test or try ou=
t in an audition," didn't appear on the English language stage until the=
 mid-20th century.





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