soliloquize
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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soliloquizesimple
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soliloquizessimple
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have soliloquizedperfect
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has soliloquizedperfect
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am soliloquizingprogressive
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are soliloquizingprogressive
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is soliloquizingprogressive
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have been soliloquizingperfect progressive
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has been soliloquizingperfect progressive
Past
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soliloquizedsimple
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had soliloquizedperfect
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was soliloquizingprogressive
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were soliloquizingprogressive
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had been soliloquizingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing soliloquize
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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The Shining
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Walden
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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
I read somewhere," Dolan soliloquizes at one point, "that on average each of us is exposed to something like 5,000 advertising messages a day.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2013
Geta, left alone, soliloquizes upon the situation and sums it up so far as it is known to him.
From Studies in the Poetry of Italy, I. Roman by Miller, Frank Justus
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
From this point on, the girls are soliloquizing — telling their secrets to the audience.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
