Showing results for "heard"

• past participle of hear.
• past tense form of hear.

heard

American  

[hurd] / hɜrd /

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of hear.

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adjective

1. perceived by the ear or learned by hearing.

   Linguists have many theories about how we comprehend heard utterances, but less to say about language production.

   Review your notes and add any comments while the heard information is fresh in your memory.

Other Word Forms

• half-heard
  adjective
• well-heard
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of heard

First recorded before 900 heard for def. 1, in 1480–90 heard for def. 2; hear ( def. ) + -(e)d ¹ ( def. ) for verb sense; hear ( def. ) + -(e)d ² ( def. ) for adjective sense

Explanation

If your dog trembled and shook at the sound of fireworks, he might have thought he heard gunshots. Heard means "perceived by the sense of hearing." If you detected a sound using your ears, you heard it. Heard is the past tense of the verb hear, and it's also an adjective when you use it to describe a particular sound, as when you say, "The music was even lovelier since it was mysteriously heard from afar." A word you might confuse with heard is herd, which means "group of animals."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heard

“All of their claims will be heard by immigration judges and they will receive due process,” the spokesperson said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

Sherratt said he heard Mogan shout something along the lines of "hurry up" and saw Semenyo turn towards him.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

Atta Kanaan, a Palestinian resident of Mikhmas who lives 50 metres from the mosque, told AFP that he heard the sound of breaking glass shortly after midnight on Wednesday and immediately went to the building.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

And parents who say, “We have no idea why our kid cut us off,” are basically saying, “We heard the reasons, but we don’t want to believe them.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

Behind him, he heard the crack of the boar’s tusks ramming into the log, a wail as the foolish animal found himself stuck.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman