The act of hearing, or attending to sounds. His bold discourse had audience.

Admittance to a hearing; public reception to an interview; a ceremony observed in courts, or by official characters, when ambassadors or applicants to men in office are permitted to appear and state their business in person.

An auditory; an assembly of hearers.

In the Spanish dominions, a court; as the audience of Seville, which is a court of oyer and terminer; and the audience pretorial, in the Indies, which is a high court of judicature. The word in Spain also signifies certain law-officers, appointed to institute a judicial inquiry.

In England, a court held by the arch-bishop of Canterbury, on the subject of consecrations, elections, institutions, marriages.