hear
to perceive by the ear: Didn't you hear the doorbell?
to learn by the ear or by being told; be informed of: to hear news.
to listen to; give or pay attention to: They refused to hear our side of the argument.
to be among the audience at or of (something): to hear a recital.
to give a formal, official, or judicial hearing to (something); consider officially, as a judge, sovereign, teacher, or assembly: to hear a case.
to take or listen to the evidence or testimony of (someone): to hear the defendant.
to listen to with favor, assent, or compliance.
(of a computer) to perceive by speech recognition.
to be capable of perceiving sound by the ear; have the faculty of perceiving sound vibrations.
to receive information by the ear or otherwise: to hear from a friend.
to listen with favor, assent, or compliance (often followed by of): I will not hear of your going.
(of a computer) to be capable of perceiving by speech recognition.
(used as an interjection in the phrase Hear! Hear! to express approval, as of a speech.)
Origin of hear
1synonym study For hear
Other words for hear
Opposites for hear
Other words from hear
- hear·a·ble, adjective
- hear·er, noun
- out·hear, verb (used with object), out·heard, out·hear·ing.
- re·hear, verb, re·heard, re·hear·ing.
- un·hear·a·ble, adjective
Words that may be confused with hear
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use hear in a sentence
In that Gothic student union, I’d run the faucet and throw up in the bathroom at the top of the tower, hoping no one would hear me.
What ‘The Crown’ got right in portraying Princess Diana’s bulimia: It let her voice be heard | Amanda Long | November 20, 2020 | Washington PostOn the other, we hear of schools with significant rates of infection.
Schools are not spreading covid-19. This new data explains why. | Emily Oster | November 20, 2020 | Washington PostRosenblatt invited her back for just a moment, and this time I heard the story of how I was capable of magic.
Eighty years of memories that will stir readers’ own | Connie Schultz | November 20, 2020 | Washington PostNina estimated it was about two minutes before she and Randy could hear their son.
For undrafted NFL rookies, the odds were even longer this year. Isaiah Wright made it anyway. | Sam Fortier | November 20, 2020 | Washington PostFor about a year, I’d been hearing that more Guatemalan immigrants were showing up on factory floors, and that among them were teenagers who worked overnight while they attended area high schools during the day.
The Stolen Childhood of Teenage Factory Workers | by Melissa Sanchez | November 20, 2020 | ProPublica
The sweet voice, hardly hearable, pronounced the word: “Batono!”
Caucasian Legends | A. Goulbat
British Dictionary definitions for hear
/ (hɪə) /
(tr) to perceive (a sound) with the sense of hearing
(tr; may take a clause as object) to listen to: did you hear what I said?
(when intr, sometimes foll by of or about; when tr, may take a clause as object) to be informed (of); receive information (about): to hear of his success; have you heard?
law to give a hearing to (a case)
(when intr, usually foll by of and used with a negative) to listen (to) with favour, assent, etc: she wouldn't hear of it
(intr foll by from) to receive a letter, news, etc (from)
hear! hear! an exclamation used to show approval of something said
hear tell dialect to be told (about); learn (of)
Origin of hear
1Derived forms of hear
- hearable, adjective
- hearer, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with hear
In addition to the idioms beginning with hear
- hear a peep out of
- hear a pin drop, can
- hear from
- hear of
- hear oneself think, can't
- hear out
also see:
- another county heard from
- hard of hearing
- never hear the end of
- not have it (hear of it)
- unheard of
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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