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

A neighbourhood resident, 54-year-old traffic clerk Mihaela Blanaru, told AFP she heard a phone alert warning her about the danger, and then was surprised by the light flooding her bedroom and the noise.

From Barron's • May 29, 2026

"I think you'll probably see some people you've never heard of before making deep runs in a lot of big tournaments," Fearnley added.

From BBC • May 29, 2026

Have you heard about United Airlines’ new slap fare?

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

I haven’t heard anything on the news about this.

From Slate • May 29, 2026

And now as I stood singing it I heard, behind me in the pew, Mama’s voice singing too.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom