hark

American  

[hahrk] / hɑrk /

verb (used without object)

harks, present (3rd person singular) harked, past participle, past harking present participle

1. to listen attentively; hearken.

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verb (used with object)

harks, present (3rd person singular) harked, past participle, past harking present participle

1. Archaic. to listen to; hear.

noun

1. a hunter's shout to hounds, as to encourage them in following the scent.

verb phrase

1. hark back

   1. (of hounds) to return along the course in order to regain a lost scent.

   2. to return to a previous subject or point; revert.

      He kept harking back to his early days in vaudeville.

hark British  

/ hɑːk /

verb

1. (intr; usually imperative) to listen; pay attention

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unharked
  adjective

Conjugated Forms

Present

• has harked
  perfect 3rd person singular
• have harked
  perfect
• is harking
  progressive 3rd person singular
• are harking
  progressive
• harking
  participle
• am harking
  progressive 1st person singular
• have been harking
  perfect progressive
• harks
  singular 3rd person
• has been harking
  perfect progressive 3rd person singular

Past

• had harked
  perfect
• were harking
  progressive plural
• had been harking
  perfect progressive
• harked
  simple
• was harking
  progressive singular
• harked
  participle

Future

• will hark
  simple
• will have harked
  perfect
• will have been harking
  perfect progressive
• will be harking
  progressive

Etymology

Origin of hark

1175–1225; Middle English herken, earlier herkien, Old English *heorcian; cognate with Old Frisian herkia, harkia; akin to Middle Dutch harken, Middle High German, German horchen. See hearken, hear

Explanation

Hark! This is an old fashioned word for “listen up!” Hark also means “to look back.” If you ride a horse to school, your behavior harks back to the days before cars. Hark is an order to pay attention and listen carefully, but it also means to go back to or remember something from the past. Hark has an interesting origin: it comes from the term "to hark back," which was when hunting dogs retraced the scent of their prey when they had lost it to try to pick it up again. Using hark these days sounds very literary and old fashioned. It harks back to ye olde times.

Example Sentences

Indisputably, there are signs—some of which hark back to the dot-com era—that it is.

From Barron's • May 29, 2026

There are passages for unaccompanied chorus that hark back to church music of the Renaissance and moments that seem like Dada before its time.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

People loved the vintage look of the pink toilets, which hark back to a time when bathrooms — whole houses, really — weren’t quite so bland and boring.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2025

When built, it was intended as a "hark back to the history of bathing machines in Margate", which were used frequently in the town during Victorian times.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2025

Sometimes in public, hearing a stranger, I’d hark back to my past.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez