auditory
Americanadjective
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Anatomy, Physiology. pertaining to hearing, to the sense of hearing, or to the organs of hearing.
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perceived through or resulting from the sense of hearing.
auditory hallucinations.
noun
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auditories
plural
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an assembly of hearers; audience.
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an auditorium, especially the nave of a church.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of auditory
1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin audītōrius relating to hearing. See auditor, -tory 1
Explanation
If you describe something as auditory, it is related to the process of hearing. If someone says "Surrender Dorothy" and you hear "Where's the laundry," you have an auditory problem. The word auditory is based on the Latin word audire, meaning to hear. If you have an auditory processing disorder, you may have trouble discerning conversation in a noisy room, or hear a ringing sound at all times. Some teachers think there's something wrong with their students' auditory capacity, but actually they're just being ignored.
Vocabulary lists containing auditory
Common Senses: Aud ("Hear")
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aud
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UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #2
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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:
The next time I sit through another auditory gauntlet on the number 29, I will keep that in mind.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
When activity in either the auditory cortex or somatosensory cortex was disrupted, participants showed significantly poorer retention of the speech movements they had learned.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
And then the 1970s British folk rock gives way to a less pleasant auditory landscape, as the hum appears, bringing on headaches and nosebleeds and affecting her concentration and mood, her work and family.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
They then measured how the mice responded using a modified auditory startle test.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2026
Dynamic auditory processing, musical experience and language development.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
The great American London built by a continent on which all the people are free; her vast populations redeemed; her churches thronged with worshipful auditories!
From T. De Witt Talmage As I Knew Him by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
He saw his neighbors' ears clogged, and he was prepared to die howling if only he could pierce those encrusted auditories.
From Mary, Mary by Padraic Colum
He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great distance; especially as his auditories observed the most perfect silence.
From The Life of Benjamin Franklin Illustrated by Tales, Sketches, and Anecdotes by Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich
Its future auditories will be the generations of men, as they rise up before it and gather round it’ Webster.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 Volume 23, Number 2 by Various
There is another scruple cast in by divinity concerning its production, much disputed in the German auditories, and with that indifferency and equality of arguments, as leave the controversy undetermined.
From Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend by Sir Thomas Browne
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.
