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vaudeville

/ˈvɑdvɪl/
IPA guide

Other forms: vaudevilles

Vaudeville is a type of entertainment that mixes comedy and music in a variety show.

Originally, a vaudeville was a popular song satirizing current events. Eventually, it came to mean a type of variety show that mixed comedy and music. Vaudeville, or "music hall," was popular between the end of the 19th- and the beginning of the 20th century. Vaudeville performers were multi-talented, because they might have to tell a joke one minute, dance the next, and then sing. The word vaudeville comes from the French phrase voix de ville, "voice of the city."

Definitions of vaudeville
  1. noun
    a genre of variety show with songs, comic acts, etc.
    synonyms: music hall
    see moresee less
    type of:
    variety, variety show
    a show consisting of a series of short unrelated performances
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