Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The art of projecting one's voice so that it seems to come from another source, as from a wooden figure.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act, art, or practice of speaking or uttering sounds in such a manner that the voice appears to come, not from the person speaking, but from a distance, as from the opposite side of the room or from the Cellar. Ventriloquism differs from ordinary speaking mainly in the mode of respiration. A very full inspiration is taken, which is breathed out slowly and gradually, the sound of the voice being dexterously modified and diminished by the muscles of the larynx and the palate. At the same time the lips of the performer are scarcely moved, and the deception is still further facilitated by the attention of the auditors being directed to the pretended source of the voice. Ventriloquism was known to the ancient Greeks as well as to the Romans.
Wiktionary
- n. The art of projecting one's voice without moving the lips so that it appears to come from another source, such as a dummy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act, art, or practice of speaking in such a manner that the voice appears to come, not from the person speaking, but from some other source, as from a dummy held by the ventriloquist, from the opposite side of the room, from the cellar, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the art of projecting your voice so that it seems to come from another source (as from a ventriloquist's dummy)
Etymologies
- ventriloquy + -ism. (Wiktionary)
- From Latin ventriloquus, speaking from the belly : venter, ventr-, belly + loquī, to speak. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The only word in that passage which appears to hint at what we call ventriloquism is”
“As a boy he developed the skill in ventriloquism that he later used to earn his tuition at Northwestern University.”
“The voices are strong throughout, but Gregory's ventriloquism is at its best with Bess of Hardwick, a woman who managed to throw off the restrictions of birth, class and sex in order to achieve things that proved beyond her titled husband.”
“For some time his ventriloquism was a great annoyance to some few of the guard at Camp Douglas.”
John M. Copley. A Sketch of the Battle of Franklin, Tenn. ...
“And it is a very common thing in Chinese opera to do these kind of ventriloquism, or to have cross-dressing, for instance.”
“Humans possessed by spirits are often described as ill or distressed, lacking power, control, and agency, and spirit possession has been described as a kind of ventriloquism in which mediums acquire a voice more powerful than their own as humans.”
“In fact, can't Shelley be said to be experimenting with a kind of radical "ventriloquism" from the time of his early collection, Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson?”
“It struck him that the creature was gifted "with this kind of ventriloquism in order to deceive its prey as to the distance it is from them.”
“The front cover features Ando in his "ventriloquism" mode.”
“Rather than treat a dead statesman as a useful dummy with which to practice the ventriloquism of modern discontents, the playwright has limited himself to bringing dramatic illumination to past events he has troubled himself to properly research.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ventriloquism’.
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-ism's -logies
acosmism, absurdism, absolutism, ableism, aestheticism, alarmism, allotheism, anachronism, animalculism, analogism, animatism, animism and 464 more...
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Master
comprehensive
picaresque, carnivalesque, -esque, grotesque, Cocteau, necropolis, hypnopædic, mojito, imprimatur, insouciance, idyll, maestro and 239 more...
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4
darjeeling, prism, ooze, marsupial, adamantine, seraphim, westering, fluted, narcoleptic, harlequin, icthus, lepidoptera and 23 more...
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VanishedOne's Words
facipulator, fetiphobia, gules, boustrophedon, reverse boustroph..., unreal, ensiform, xiphoid, romhack, heritage, floccinaucinihili..., johnian and 1004 more...
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dying arts
... according to the Internet
blackberry picking, kimono making, letter writing, doll repair, calligraphy, basket weaving, sword making, mechanical watch ..., making consomme, pipe organ playing, silk flower making, hat making and 54 more...
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10th Grade Unit 9 (Locut/Loqu)
ventriloquism, soliloquy, loquacious, interlocutor, grandiloquent, eloquent, colloquial, circumlocution
Tweets
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