soliloquy
- An act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when alone or regardless of hearers, especially in a play.
In a sentence
- Hamlet's famous soliloquy beginning 'To be, or not to be' is one of the most quoted passages in English literature.
- The playwright used an extended soliloquy to reveal the villain's hidden motives to the audience.
Usage note. Spelling and pronunciation both cause problems: note the '-loquy' ending (from Latin 'loqui', to speak) and stress the second syllable: suh-LIL-uh-kwee, not 'SOL-ih-loh-kwee'.
Where it comes from
English soliloquy — “dramatic self-addressed speech” · entered English 17th c.
From Late Latin 'soliloquium', coined by Saint Augustine in the 4th century from Latin 'solus' (alone) and 'loqui' (to speak). It entered English in the mid-17th century, around the 1650s, primarily as a literary and dramatic term. The word is a close parallel to 'monologue' but specifically implies speaking to oneself rather than to an audience.