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

Jonathan Weil is a writer for the Journal’s Heard on the Street column covering finance and accounting.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

South Carolina right-handed pitcher Jori Heard allowed only one hit through two innings, keeping UCLA’s potent bats relatively quiet.

From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026

Jinjoo Lee is a writer for The Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column, covering the energy and retail sectors.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026

Matthew Heard, Natural England's national delivery director, said the licence it has approved "supports a carefully planned reintroduction, grounded in strong evidence and built on collaboration with local communities and land managers".

From BBC • May 13, 2026

“Spaceman. Heard you and Dave are cool about Nicole.”

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin