monology

/məˈnɒləd͡ʒi/

Etymology

From mono- + -logy.

Why this word is great

MONOLOGY — [Noun] The compulsive domination of discourse through uninterrupted speech. From the Greek mono- ("single, alone") + -logy ("speech, discourse"). Unlike "dialogue" (an exchange between participants) or "eulogy" (a structured tribute to another), monology is the unchecked colonization of conversational space—the steamroller of syllables that flattens reciprocity. It is the lecturer who mistakes a question for a prompt, the barstool bard deaf to groans, or the lovestruck narcissist reciting their diary as courtship. The speaker drowns in their own echoes.

noun

  1. The act of habit of soliloquizing, or of dominating conversation.“It was not, therefore, by an insolent usurpation that [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge persisted in monology through his whole life, but in virtue of a concession from the kindness and respect of his friends.”
  2. A work consisting of a single part (as opposed to a dilogy, trilogy, etc.)