vaudeville

[ vawd-vil, vohd-, vaw-duh- ]

noun

1. theatrical entertainment consisting of a number of individual performances, acts, or mixed numbers, as by comedians, singers, dancers, acrobats, and magicians. Compare variety ( def 9 ).
2. a theatrical piece of light or amusing character, interspersed with songs and dances.
3. a satirical cabaret song.

vaudeville

/ ˈvəʊdəvɪl; ˈvɔː- /

noun

1. variety entertainment consisting of short acts such as acrobatic turns, song-and-dance routines, animal acts, etc, popular esp in the early 20th century Brit namemusic hall
2. a light or comic theatrical piece interspersed with songs and dances

vaudeville

1. Light theatrical entertainment, popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, consisting of a succession of short acts. A vaudeville show usually included comedians, singers, dancers, jugglers, trained animals, magicians, and the like.

Word History and Origins

Origin of vaudeville¹

1730–40; < French, shortened alteration of Middle French chanson du vau de Vire “song of the vale ( def ) of Vire,” a valley of Calvados, France, noted for satirical folksongs

Word History and Origins

Origin of vaudeville¹

C18: from French, from vaudevire satirical folk song, shortened from chanson du vau de Vire song of the valley of Vire, a district in Normandy where this type of song flourished

Example Sentences

Here, McLeod points up to a painted sign advertising the old Clunes Theatre, which was a vaudeville venue in the early 1900s.

From Los Angeles Times

“We’d go to the Million Dollar Theater where they would have Mexican vaudeville. Then we’d go down the street to the State Theater or the Orpheum to see Hollywood movies,” he recalled.

From Los Angeles Times

She played one of the children in a vaudeville act called “Uncle Jocko’s Kiddie Show,” and ever since, she said, “Gypsy” has remained “very much alive in my brain.”

From New York Times

Stone knits puppets and vaudeville acts, songs and somersaults, as well as melds two groups of people who might not have shared a lunch table in high school — the jocks and the theater geeks.

From Seattle Times

Onstage with her group the Mamas & the Papas at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967, Cass Elliot, the grand doyenne of the Laurel Canyon scene, bantered with the timing of a vaudeville comedian.

From New York Times