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a trial hearing given to a singer, actor, or other performer to test suitability for employment, professional training or competition, etc.
a reading or other simplified rendering of a theatrical work, performed before a potential backer, producer, etc.
the act, sense, or power of hearing.
something that is heard.
to try or compete in an audition:
to audition aspiring actors; to audition for the leading role.
Contemporary Examples

For example: When I was told to dress like a “movie star” for an audition, it turned out the audition was for a grocery store.
The Model Diaries: Show Me Your Best ‘Racist’ Anonymous December 7, 2013

I had moved to L.A. and gotten a little bit of traction there, and I think my manager parlayed that into an audition.
Kate McKinnon Is the Future of ‘Saturday Night Live’ Kevin Fallon November 20, 2013

My agent at the time sent that tape to SNL and then they asked me to come in for an audition.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness Marlow Stern January 6, 2015

So I did in the audition, and obviously they liked it, I guess.
Elisabeth Moss Reveals Four Tough Challenges in Making ‘Top of the Lake’ August 26, 2013

His wiretapped recordings sound like an audition tape for a low budget Serbo-mafioso Godfather knockoff.
In Defense of Blago Bill Geist January 29, 2009

Historical Examples

Inasmuch as this soon stops, the abnormality and incorrectness of their audition is hard to establish.
Criminal Psychology Hans Gross

audition is cognition of principles, conversant about all articulate sounds.
The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Madhava Acharya

Abraham talked on, rather for the pleasure of utterance than for audition, so that his sister’s abstraction was of no account.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy

She was not a baby-farm after all, and the audition of these squalling nurslings vexed her.
Mr. Punch’s Country Life Various

I do not know whether he remembered our first interview and my “audition,” but I who remembered it well only hope that he did not.
My Double Life Sarah Bernhardt

noun
a test at which a performer or musician is asked to demonstrate his ability for a particular role, etc
the act, sense, or power of hearing
verb
to judge by means of or be tested in an audition
n.

1590s, “power of hearing,” from Middle French audicion “hearing (in a court of law),” from Latin auditionem (nominative auditio) “a hearing, listening to,” noun of action from past participle stem of audire “hear” (see audience). Meaning “trial for a performer” first recorded 1881.
v.

“to try out for a performance part,” 1935, from audition (n.). Transitive sense by 1944. Related: Auditioned; auditioning.

audition au·di·tion (ô-dĭsh’ən)
n.
The sense, ability, or power of hearing.