auditory
Americanadjective
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Anatomy, Physiology. pertaining to hearing, to the sense of hearing, or to the organs of hearing.
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perceived through or resulting from the sense of hearing.
auditory hallucinations.
noun
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an assembly of hearers; audience.
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an auditorium, especially the nave of a church.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of auditory
1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin audītōrius relating to hearing. See auditor, -tory 1
Explanation
If you describe something as auditory, it is related to the process of hearing. If someone says "Surrender Dorothy" and you hear "Where's the laundry," you have an auditory problem. The word auditory is based on the Latin word audire, meaning to hear. If you have an auditory processing disorder, you may have trouble discerning conversation in a noisy room, or hear a ringing sound at all times. Some teachers think there's something wrong with their students' auditory capacity, but actually they're just being ignored.
Vocabulary lists containing auditory
Common Senses: Aud ("Hear")
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aud
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UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“You don’t want this for your kid,” said Marni Levine, a college counselor from Marlboro, N.J., whose now-adult daughter was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder in high school.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
The computational model of a neural network mimicked the owl’s auditory map—the flow of auditory information—which helped Rumelhart derive a theory about how the owl’s system developed and worked.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
Previous research in neurotypical individuals has shown that auditory stimulation during sleep can enhance slow wave activity.
From Science Daily • Mar. 17, 2026
To investigate hedgehog hearing, researchers at the University of Oxford worked with collaborators in Denmark to measure the auditory brainstem response of 20 rehabilitated hedgehogs from Danish wildlife rescue centers.
From Science Daily • Mar. 12, 2026
“At first they thought bipolar one, but when the delusions got increasingly psychotic, and I started to have auditory hallucinations, they changed my diagnosis to schizoaffective.”
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
