vaudeville

Borrowed from French vaudeville.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvɔdvɪl/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvɔːdəvɪl/

vaudeville (countable and uncountable, plural vaudevilles)

1. (historical, uncountable) A style of multi-act theatrical entertainment which originated from France and flourished in Europe and North America from the 1880s through the 1920s.
2. (historical, countable) An entertainment in this style.
   • 2008 January 28, Ben Brantley, “Ta-ta! Give ’Em the Old Existential Soft-Shoe”, in New York Times‎:

     “Me, Myself and I,” directed by Emily Mann and engagingly acted by a cast that includes the invaluable Albee veteran Brian Murray, is in the tradition of Mr. Albee’s mid- and late-career works like “The Marriage Play” and “The Play About the Baby”: fragmented philosophical vaudevilles that turn the most fundamental questions of identity into verbal soft-shoes.

• music hall (British)

• burlesque

• vaudevillian (noun/adjective)

• Tagalog: bodabil

Unclear. Possibly a corruption of voix de ville (“voice of the city”), or vallée de Vire (“valley of the (river) Vire”).

vaudeville m (plural vaudevilles)

1. vaudeville

• burlesque

• English: vaudeville