overhear
Americanverb (used with object)
-
overhears,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overheard,
past participle, past
-
overhearing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overhearsimple
-
overhearssimple
-
have overheardperfect
-
has overheardperfect
-
am overhearingprogressive
-
are overhearingprogressive
-
is overhearingprogressive
-
have been overhearingperfect progressive
-
has been overhearingperfect progressive
Past
-
overheardsimple
-
had overheardperfect
-
was overhearingprogressive
-
were overhearingprogressive
-
had been overhearingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overhear
Explanation
When you accidentally hear part of a private conversation, you overhear it. If you overhear your friends discussing the surprise party they're throwing for your birthday, you'll have to pretend to be surprised. Some restaurants have tables so close together that it's hard not to overhear what your neighbors are talking about. And so many people walk around talking loudly on their mobile phones that it's common to overhear several conversations (or, at least one half of them) just walking down the sidewalk. This is a modern phenomenon, but overhear is an old word, from the sixteenth century idea of hearing "beyond the normal range of the voice."
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:
In towns near camps in western Massachusetts, it’s not uncommon to overhear conversations about prep school wait lists and tennis programs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Further along the footpath around the old dock, I overhear an American accent.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025
I regularly overhear other birders marveling over the flashy warblers in breeding plumage, while overlooking other comparatively less-flashy birds like vireos and sparrows.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2025
Sometimes because both my parents and Lucia’s parents have come during shooting to help because we have a new kid, sometimes they’ll overhear something and be like, “That’s funny.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2024
Emma wasn’t sure if it was because he’d had to claim in public that he liked lima beans, or if he was afraid someone else in the school office would overhear their secret code word.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
When Elizabeth learns that her cancer has returned, Sophie overhears her parents’ subsequent conversation via a butt-dial from her father’s phone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Nearby, 40-year-old Masoumeh overhears our conversation and joins in.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
And the plot goes out of its way to bolster that mistrust through a series of worrisome conversation snippets that she overhears.
From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2023
All seems idyllic — until the day Beth, approaching her husband and brother-in-law in a store, overhears Don saying that he doesn’t like her new novel at all, but he can’t tell her.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2023
He overhears someone in the line saying the chickpeas have gone bad.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Mr. Wade calls this process of inheritance “catching,” the transmission of a tune without formal notation or instruction, overheard once and absorbed by musicians who may now be little remembered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The San Juan native happened upon his first musical opportunity as a teen, when he overheard that a student band in his high school was looking for a bass player.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
She only learned about the reintroduction plan after asking rangers about discussions she had overheard.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
This overheard comment, plus a confluence of socially embarrassing events at the Meryton ball later, push Mary to the point of breakdown.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
I knew this for a fact, because that night when she received the phone call about Grandma Millie’s accident, I overheard her and Dad.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
You couldn't walk down the main street without spotting some of the courtroom's stars, or grab a coffee without overhearing chatter about the case.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
A tipster in the southern U.S. recalled overhearing a conversation that seemed to connect a local woman to the pipe bombs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 14, 2025
“Kids are often being exposed to these topics anyway, through their peers, the media and overhearing conversations,” said Wenner Moyer.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2024
Suddenly the customer at the next table over, overhearing the conversation, leaned over.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
“Or herself,” said Hermione irritably, overhearing Harry pointing some of these out to Ron in the common room on Saturday evening.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
