hear
Americanverb (used with object)
-
hears,
present (3rd person singular)
-
heard,
past participle, past
-
hearing
present participle
-
to perceive by the ear.
Didn't you hear the doorbell?
- Synonyms:
- attend
-
to learn by the ear or by being told; be informed of.
to hear news.
- Synonyms:
- attend
-
to listen to; give or pay attention to.
They refused to hear our side of the argument.
-
to be among the audience at or of (something).
to hear a recital.
- Synonyms:
- attend
-
to give a formal, official, or judicial hearing to (something); consider officially, as a judge, sovereign, teacher, or assembly.
to hear a case.
-
to take or listen to the evidence or testimony of (someone).
to hear the defendant.
-
to listen to with favor, assent, or compliance.
- Antonyms:
- disregard
-
(of a computer) to perceive by speech recognition.
verb (used without object)
-
hears,
present (3rd person singular)
-
heard,
past participle, past
-
hearing
present participle
-
to be capable of perceiving sound by the ear; have the faculty of perceiving sound vibrations.
-
to receive information by the ear or otherwise.
to hear from a friend.
-
to listen with favor, assent, or compliance (often followed byof ).
I will not hear of your going.
-
(of a computer) to be capable of perceiving by speech recognition.
-
(used as an interjection in the phrase Hear! Hear! to express approval, as of a speech.)
verb
-
(tr) to perceive (a sound) with the sense of hearing
-
(tr; may take a clause as object) to listen to
did you hear what I said?
-
to be informed (of); receive information (about)
to hear of his success
have you heard?
-
law to give a hearing to (a case)
-
to listen (to) with favour, assent, etc
she wouldn't hear of it
-
to receive a letter, news, etc (from)
-
an exclamation used to show approval of something said
-
dialect to be told (about); learn (of)
Synonym Usage
Hear, listen apply to the perception of sound. To hear is to have such perception by means of the auditory sense: to hear distant bells. To listen is to give attention in order to hear and understand the meaning of a sound or sounds: to listen to what is being said; to listen for a well-known footstep.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hearsimple
-
hearssimple
-
have heardperfect
-
has heardperfect
-
am hearingprogressive
-
are hearingprogressive
-
is hearingprogressive
-
have been hearingperfect progressive
-
has been hearingperfect progressive
Past
-
heardsimple
-
had heardperfect
-
was hearingprogressive
-
were hearingprogressive
-
had been hearingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hear
First recorded before 950; Middle English heren, Old English hēran, hīeran; cognate with Dutch horen, German hören, Old Norse heyra, Gothic hausjan; perhaps akin to Greek akoúein ( see acoustic)
Explanation
When you hear, you perceive a noise made by someone or something — like a person’s voice, the song of a bird, or the torturous sound of a ticking clock on a sleepless night. While hear generally means to perceive a noise, it has several senses, including to listen carefully, as to a story. If you hear from someone, they have contacted you in some way, such as by phone call, email, or even snail mail. A judge will also hear a case when she presides over a trial. And when you hear the news, you’ve gotten information or found something out. But you didn’t hear it from me.
Vocabulary lists containing hear
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:
"For people in and around the city, not just residents but visitors too, if you've got young children walking around, you don't want to hear all that," the resident said.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
“Scott is a beloved member of the Luxor and MGM Resorts family, and we are relieved to hear that he is recovering,” an MGM Resorts spokesman told Vegas news outlets on Friday night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Sitting in his Birmingham city centre apartment, one resident says he can often hear them before he sees them.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
“It’s great for people to sing the song, but don’t do it so loud that I can’t hear the person who I paid to sing to me,” Schaefer said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
It feels like he doesn’t deserve to hear me refute him.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
First, a guy hears about the currency from a friend.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
When Lucy* puts her child to bed, she hears a constant humming.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Letsch, the elder-law attorney in Iowa, said she often hears from families trying to untangle messes with farms because they’ve been given bad advice.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
The only thing that really matters is whether the kid runs out the door to play, or has to be pried off the bed like a cat that hears the bathtub running.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
I say his name—I say it because I hope that if he hears me, he’ll come to me in my dreams tonight.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
It was like being spoken to by God, an impression aided by the fact that Ramsey, hidden in a small booth near the press box, was heard but never seen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
After finishing, he cracked a joke: “I hope you enjoyed my support acts this evening, I heard they were great.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
A number of apparent explosions have since been heard in the capital and major problems reported at King Khalid International Airport, with the tracking website FlightRadar24 reporting long delays and cancellations.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Given how many times we’ve heard that one before, I’m just not convinced.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
Suddenly Don Quixote heard cries coming from a nearby bush.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
She said she’ll be tracking a hearing on Monday run by the House Budget Committee that looks at the need for a fiscal commission.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 20, 2026
Weeks went by without them hearing from the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
The two men have been granted unconditional bail and will next appear at the Old Bailey for a case management hearing on 8 January.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
De Anda’s neighbors recalled hearing — and reporting to local authorities — barking and foul smells from the property, the Times reported in March.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
And yet the following morning it was Lieutenant Rahms himself who unlocked my cell door and escorted me to the hearing.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
