listen
Americanverb (used without object)
-
listens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
listened,
past participle, past
-
listening
present participle
-
to give attention with the ear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing; give ear.
-
to pay attention; heed; obey (often followed byto ).
Children don't always listen to their parents.
-
to wait attentively for a sound (usually followed byfor ).
to listen for sounds of their return.
-
Informal. to convey a particular impression to the hearer; sound.
The new recording doesn't listen as well as the old one.
verb (used with object)
-
listens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
listened,
past participle, past
-
listening
present participle
verb phrase
verb
-
to concentrate on hearing something
-
to take heed; pay attention
I told you many times but you wouldn't listen
Synonym Usage
See hear.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
listensimple
-
listenssimple
-
have listenedperfect
-
has listenedperfect
-
am listeningprogressive
-
are listeningprogressive
-
is listeningprogressive
-
have been listeningperfect progressive
-
has been listeningperfect progressive
Past
-
listenedsimple
-
had listenedperfect
-
was listeningprogressive
-
were listeningprogressive
-
had been listeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of listen
First recorded before 950; Middle English lis(t)nen, Old English hlysnan; cognate with Middle High German lüsenen, Swedish lyssna; akin to list 5
Explanation
If you really listen late at night after everyone's asleep, you'll hear the noises your house makes — the creaking of walls and floors, the hum of the refrigerator, the banging of the radiators. When you listen to something, you don't just hear it, but you really pay attention to the sounds. You can listen to music, listen for the sound of your guests arriving, or listen to the advice your grandfather gives you. The phrase listen in means to eavesdrop on, or deliberately overhear, a conversation. The t in the middle of the word listen is silent (you can't hear it even if you listen).
Vocabulary lists containing listen
Mother's Day Words: What Mothers Do
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Part 1 Vocabulary (Unit 3)
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Spelling Practice, Unit 7
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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.
See Examples For:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has urged people not to "listen to various rumours" after a Russian lab technician died at a plague research centre in Siberia.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
You can watch my conversation with Tomé below or listen on Apple or Spotify.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
It damaged him ... so he was unable to see John for what he is and unable to listen to John the way he should.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Just give a listen to “Pretend to Be Nice” from 2001’s “Josie and the Pussycats.”
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
I needed to lie down and sleep, but Mr. Weiss gave a speech and I had to listen, or at least to look as though I were listening.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
If the above sounds familiar, then you might already be a Wholigan — someone who routinely listens to the long-running celebrity podcast “Who? Weekly.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
The idea was to put on Krapp's Last Tape, an intense one-man play in which an ageing writer listens back to recordings of his younger self, remembering a lifetime of regrets and missed opportunities.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
The influencer said when people find out that she listens to Owens, they often mock her and call her a conspiracy theorist.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
Edmond “Eddy” Porteous, one of the novel’s narrators, is an 18-year-old gay man in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1988, and like many artsy young people he expresses his personality through the music he listens to.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Ama’s eyes turn sad as she listens to me.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
I don’t remember what he said, but I vividly recall how he made me feel: worthy of his attention, valued, listened to.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
I listened to that thing over and over again, until I spilled a bottle of soap in my tape deck and ruined it.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
I listened to tons of records from Chile, Argentina and Mexico.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
Lingard described Bailey as an "agony aunt" for the town, someone who "listened to everyone's problems" but rarely took time away from the shop.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Bending over to hold his throbbing sides, he listened carefully.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
A further indication of the format's growing popularity saw the release of Christopher Nolan's film caused daily listening hours for The Odyssey to surge in France by 752 percent.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Couples who exercised together also reported better listening and stronger feelings that their spouse heard and supported them.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
From the rise and fall of the signal’s pitch as the satellite passed overhead, the scientists could reconstruct the entire orbit from a listening post.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
I’m driving down Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles, listening to Matt’s proposal over my car speaker, my eyes blurry from crying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
He was sick of sitting here listening to Mr. Reardon bully his family with all these “hypotheticals,” all these simpers and smirks, cruel smiles and humorless laughs.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
