listener

[ lis-uh-ner ]

noun

1. someone who gives attention with the ear, especially for the purpose of hearing specific sounds, speech, instructions, etc.:

   At story time, you may choose to be a reader or a listener.

2. someone who listens to a radio broadcast or to a specific radio program:

   They attract teenage listeners with pop songs about first love.

Word History and Origins

Origin of listener¹

First recorded in 1600–20; listen ( def ) + -er ¹( def )

Example Sentences

These themes clearly resonanted with the lives of listeners in 2020.

From Vox

Platforms like Instagram, Reelz, TikTok, and Twitter make things more accessible for listeners and young artists alike.

From Essence.com

In all, the electrical activity of these neurons could predict nearly 80 percent of the time whether the listener accurately predicted Tom’s mental image of the jar.

From Singularity Hub 

Not only are there nearly infinite ways to create binaural beats with nature recordings and ambient noise, but the way listeners react to them can vary widely, too.

From Popular-Science

Well, our listeners can find Brooke at Playa Provisions, or just send a meal to her staff by going to their website.

From Eater

The friend is asking himself if he could have been a better listener.

From The Daily Beast

All along, Beth has been a very good listener and sort of very good at clocking everything around her and taking it in.

From The Daily Beast

The talk radio phenom and Fox News staple has identified himself as a longtime listener of the TRN patriarch.

From The Daily Beast

If Japanese whisky is like a symphony, then I am a contented listener.

From The Daily Beast

Social media twists everything, but on radio, it is my voice directly to the listener.

From The Daily Beast

Something in the tone of the man seemed to his listener uncalled for—in a sense reproachful, singular.

From Project Gutenberg

We now come to the department of the organ which will be of more interest to the listener, viz., the various organ tones.

From Project Gutenberg

Only one grown person—Mr. Marble—was admitted into the kitchen, and he was there only as a listener.

From Project Gutenberg

There was a cold, stinging contempt in Varney's tones by no means lost on the listener.

From Project Gutenberg

His voice and manners were pleasing, and his estimate of himself was sufficiently modest to make him an appreciative listener.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• audience