Audiobook
nounA recording of a book or text read aloud, listened to rather than read.
How to spell audiobook
9 letters · 4 syllables
How to pronounce audiobook
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does audiobook mean?
- nounA recording of a book or text read aloud, listened to rather than read.
Audiobook in a sentence
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She listened to an audiobook during her long commute.
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The new thriller is available as a paperback and as an audiobook.
Where does audiobook come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This is a modern compound that joins two very different ancestors. The first half, audio-, comes from the Latin verb audire, meaning 'to hear', the same root that gives us 'audible', 'audience', and 'audition'. The second half, book, is a thoroughly native English word descended from the Old English boc, which is thought to be linked to the beech tree, possibly because early runic inscriptions were carved on beechwood. The two parts were welded together in the twentieth century, becoming common only as recorded readings spread on cassette and later in digital form. Because the word is a straightforward bolt-together of 'audio' and 'book' with no joining letter, the spelling is unusually transparent: keep the full 'audio' and add the full 'book'.
How the word is built
- audio- (from Latin audire: to hear)
- book (from Old English boc: written work)
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