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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
When activity in either the auditory cortex or somatosensory cortex was disrupted, participants showed significantly poorer retention of the speech movements they had learned.
From Science Daily • Jun. 23, 2026
When Felix and his quirky next-door neighbor Marigold find a wooden box labeled “Open Me” hidden away in a closet, they discover a recording device with an intriguing auditory riddle.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
Karen first found out about hearing loss when Klugo’s older sister failed a routine newborn auditory test.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 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
When listening to music, sound vibrations enter the auditory cortex and are instantaneously broken down into elements of pitch, timbre, spatial relations, and tone duration.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
