- present participle of hear.
hearing
Americannoun
-
hearings
plural
-
the faculty or sense by which sound is perceived.
-
the act of perceiving sound.
-
opportunity to be heard.
to grant a hearing.
-
an instance or a session in which testimony and arguments are presented, especially before an official, as a judge in a lawsuit.
- Synonyms:
- consultation, conference, audience
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a preliminary examination of the basic evidence and charges by a magistrate to determine whether criminal procedures, a trial, etc., are justified.
-
earshot.
Their conversation was beyond my hearing.
noun
-
the faculty or sense by which sound is perceived
-
an opportunity to be listened to
-
the range within which sound can be heard; earshot
-
the investigation of a matter by a court of law, esp the preliminary inquiry into an indictable crime by magistrates
-
a formal or official trial of an action or lawsuit
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hearing
Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; see origin at hear, -ing 1
Explanation
Hearing is the sense that allows you to distinguish sounds with your ears. Dogs have a particularly acute sense of hearing, and they can hear sounds pitched too high for humans to hear. You use your hearing when you attend a concert, listen to an audio book, or talk to a friend on the phone. Another kind of hearing is a legal process at which people state a case in front of a judge, so she can decide whether or not it should be presented at a trial with a jury. This kind of hearing gets its name from the idea that the court is "listening" to the evidence.
Vocabulary lists containing hearing
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.
See Examples For:
The court determined that my friend failed to reschedule a hearing, although he says he has documentation showing that he attempted to do so.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Rather than lose in a hearing over a more consequential preliminary injunction, Paramount voluntarily agreed that it would not finalize the transaction until after the trial or by June 1, whichever date comes first.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
"I'm hearing there are more players wanting to leave LIV than want to stay," Faldo told BBC Sport.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
After an initial hearing, the judge paused the rollout, but the city appealed, getting the lower-court’s order put on hold.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Didn’t want to make the words real by hearing myself say them out loud: scared that if I pretended to forget who we were, it would mean accepting that the past was truly dead.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
In Pike’s case, Ward held several days of hearings and listened to a number of experts.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
And during Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s 2017 confirmation hearings, some media outlets claimed that President Donald Trump’s nominee had plagiarized parts of his 2006 book about assisted suicide.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
The first trial was dramatically annulled last year after two-and-a-half months of hearings, following revelations that one of the judges overseeing it took part in a clandestine documentary about the case.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
The outcome of the appeal will not be known immediately after these hearings as the decision could take months.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Now as an Elder-in-Training he was supposed to be at the Council Hall, preparing for the day’s hearings, but he just couldn’t.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
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.
