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soliloquize

American  
[suh-lil-uh-kwahyz] / səˈlɪl əˌkwaɪz /
especially British, soliloquise

verb (used without object)

  • soliloquizes,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • soliloquized,
    past participle,  past
  • soliloquizing
    present participle
  1. to utter a soliloquy; talk to oneself.


verb (used with object)

  • soliloquizes,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • soliloquized,
    past participle,  past
  • soliloquizing
    present participle
  1. to utter in a soliloquy; say to oneself.

soliloquize British  
/ səˈlɪləˌkwaɪz /

verb

  1. (intr) to utter a soliloquy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Etymology

Origin of soliloquize

First recorded in 1750–60; soliloqu(y) + -ize

Explanation

If you make a speech to yourself in your bathroom mirror, you soliloquize. To soliloquize is to talk at length to yourself. The verb soliloquize comes from the noun soliloquy, which is a speech given by a person who has no audience — or a speech given by a character in a play who is alone on stage. When an actor soliloquizes, she tells the play's audience what she's thinking. Shakespeare's characters often soliloquize — most famously, Hamlet soliloquizes, "To be or not to be?" The word combines the Latin solus, "alone," and loqui, "speak."

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing soliloquize

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

But people do tend to soliloquize in Chekhov, if not as much as in Shakespeare.

From New York Times Dec. 5, 2011

Arrayed before us on Freudian couches, the Nixons and Maos soliloquize about their youthful days of personality formation.

From New York Times Feb. 11, 2011

But did your alter egos get to soliloquize in song?

From New York Times May 6, 2010

By night they act out their old roles, philosophize, soliloquize, dramatize the day's rebuffs, fall asleep and dream.

From Time Magazine Archive

Whew—on a roll, off to the races, put on this earth solely to soliloquize to his ginormous clay-covered shoes.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

At moments, he soliloquizes on topics such as beauty and metaphors.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 29, 2021

“Sometimes more life lies hidden in the opening of a door than in a question,” Jakob soliloquizes as he wanders the Institute’s labyrinthine hallways.

From The Guardian Jun. 19, 2020

Shakespeer: A guy who soliloquizes at a urinal.

From Washington Post Mar. 19, 2015

He is not playing a dramatized version of Leonardo; rather, he soliloquizes this artist and inventor’s notes against various shaded backdrops.

From New York Times Dec. 18, 2014

"Well, this is but an island, and a small one at that; consequently I won't let it worry me," soliloquizes the anglophobe.

From East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan by Frederic Courtland Penfield

He shook his head as if I were lying or whining, then soliloquized about Carlson’s defense of traditional masculinity.

From Seattle Times Jan. 5, 2024

Resorting to his accustomed modesty, Mr. Kitman, tongue planted firmly in cheek, also soliloquized on his bona fides as a constructive critic rather than a chronic kvetch.

From New York Times Jun. 29, 2023

Hundreds attended a 2018 retirement party held at Mitla’s banquet room, where customer after customer soliloquized Reyes.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 30, 2020

And reality TV star Khloe Kardashian soliloquized aTwitter changes business of celebrity endorsementsbout the brand of jeans that accentuates the famous Kardashian derriere.

From Washington Post Nov. 3, 2011

Do you know how long it takes to sound out a word like soliloquized?

From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt

We even got the comedy of the dubiously banned-from-soccer ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter soliloquizing about the integrity of his former employer.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 6, 2026

Though Levin’s show is cut from the same cloth as Limbaugh’s—aging white dude soliloquizing for three hours about his interesting opinions—it is dyed in a different pattern.

From Slate Jun. 4, 2020

Turing makes a few soliloquizing cameos in “Machines Like Me,” functioning essentially as the novel’s conscience.

From The New Yorker Apr. 15, 2019

There’s a fair amount of soliloquizing and rhetorical grandstanding, which is also true of Shakespeare, hip-hop and church.

From New York Times Feb. 7, 2019

Bent ox er their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing silence, the absent- minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle, of absorbed concentration.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

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