monologue

Etymology

First attested in c. 1550. Borrowed from Middle French monologue, modeled on dialogue, ultimately from Ancient Greek or via Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “speaking alone”).

noun

1. (drama, authorship) A long speech by one person in a play; sometimes a soliloquy; other times spoken to other characters.
2. (comedy) A long series of comic stories and jokes as an entertainment.
3. A long, uninterrupted utterance that monopolizes a conversation.

verb

1. To deliver a monologue.
   Powerful parents, in her formulation, feeling themselves autonomous and powerful, give autonomy and power to their children; powerless ones, feeling themselves passive and controlled, in turn exert an excessive control on their children, and monologue at them, instead of having a dialogue with them. 1989, Oliver Sacks, Seeing Voices