soliloquy

1595–1605; From Late Latin sōliloquium in the title of St. Augustine's Soliloquiorum libri duo, from sōlus (“only, sole”) + loquor (“I speak”).

• enPR: səlĭlʹəkwē, IPA^(key): /səˈlɪləkwi/

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soliloquy (countable and uncountable, plural soliloquies)

1. (drama) The act of a character speaking to themselves so as to reveal their thoughts to the audience.

   At the end of the second act the main villain gave a soliloquy detailing his plans to attack the protagonist.

   • 1901, Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, J.M. Dent & Co, London, Chapter XII: Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales, Sand-martins, etc., page 315:

     Yet if I were to say […] that Hamlet's soliloquy had been much over-rated, it would not be said, on this account, that I was unable to appreciate Shakespeare.

2. (authorship) A speech or written discourse in this form.
   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 135:

     The feeling of Singleton's bosom grew heightened in its tone of melancholy, and a more passionate emphasis of thought broke forth in his half-muttered soliloquy:— ¶"How I remember as I look […]

Primarily used of theater, particularly the works of William Shakespeare, as a term of art, particularly for finely-crafted speeches. An archetype is the “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet. In informal speech or discussions of popular culture, the term monologue is used instead. However, the terms are not precisely synonymous; a monologue is held in the presence and directed towards other characters on the stage, whereas a soliloquy does not acknowledge the presence of any other stage characters if present, and is directed to the audience.

• (speech or written discourse): monologue

• (discourse of a single person): colloquy, dialogue, dialog

• locution
• oration

• soliloquist
• soliloquize

• solo, solitude
• locution – see other terms on same loquor root

• apostrophe
• stage whisper

soliloquy (third-person singular simple present soliloquies, present participle soliloquying or soliloquing, simple past and past participle soliloquied)

1. (very rare) To issue a soliloquy.

• soliloquize (much more common)