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hear. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hear, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hear in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
hear you have here. The definition of the word
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hear, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English heren, from Old English hīeran (“to hear”), from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) + *h₂ows- (“ear”) + *-yéti (denominative suffix).
Pronunciation
Verb
hear (third-person singular simple present hears, present participle hearing, simple past and past participle heard)
- (intransitive, stative) To perceive sounds through the ear.
I was deaf, and now I can hear.
- (transitive, stative) To perceive (a sound, or something producing a sound) with the ear, to recognize (something) in an auditory way.
I heard a sound from outside the window.
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
- (transitive) To exercise this faculty intentionally; to listen to.
1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”
- (transitive) To listen favourably to; to grant (a request etc.).
Eventually the king chose to hear her entreaties.
- (transitive) To receive information about; to come to learn of.
1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:Adam, soon as he heard / The fatal Trespass don by Eve, amaz'd, / Astonied stood and Blank […]
- (with from) To be contacted by.
2009, Elsa T. Aguries, The Pearl Within, →ISBN, page 141:When I don't hear from you, My days feel long and lonely.
2012, Art Wiederhold, Charles Sutphen, From the Depths of Evil, →ISBN, page 343:They're ten hours overdue. Have you heard from any of them since they left Nineveh?
2012, James Meredith, A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America, →ISBN:She left and I never heard from her again.
- (transitive, law) To listen to (a person, case) in a court of law; to try.
Your case will be heard at the end of the month.
- (transitive, informal) To sympathize with; to understand the feelings or opinion of.
You're tired of all the ads on TV? I hear ya.
- (transitive, Greek philosophy) To study under.
1656, Thomas Stanley, The History of Philosophy. The Eighth Part, Containing the Stoick Philosophers, page 15:SPHÆRUS was of Bosphorus, he first heard Zeno, then Cleanthes, and having made a sufficient progresse in learning, went to Alexandria to Ptolomy Philopater […]
1990, Henry J. Blumenthal, “Themistius: the last Peripatetic commentator on Aristotle?”, in Richard Sorabji, editor, Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence, 2nd edition, published 2016, →ISBN, pages 130–31:Ammonius, the teacher of both Simplicius and Philoponus, tells us how Julian gave a ruling […] in favor of Maximus, who had heard Iamblichus, and followed him and Porphyry (in An. Pr. 31,15–22).
2018, “Introduction: The Old Academy to Cicero”, in Harold Tarrant et al., editors, Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity, →ISBN, pages 24–25:Charmadas, never actually Head of School but a prominent Academic who had himself heard Carneades, was prepared to teach Plato’s Gorgias […]
Usage notes
Derived terms
Translations
to perceive with the ear
- Abkhaz: аҳара (aḥara)
- Acehnese: deungo
- Afar: oobbe
- Afrikaans: hoor (af)
- Akan: te
- Aklanon: dungog
- Albanian: dëgjon
- Ambonese Malay: dangar
- Amharic: ሰማ (säma)
- Arabic: سَمِعَ (ar) (samiʕa)
- Egyptian Arabic: سمع (simiʕ)
- Moroccan Arabic: سْمع (sməʕ)
- Armenian: լսել (hy) (lsel)
- Aromanian: avdu (roa-rup)
- Assamese: শুন (xun)
- Asturian: oyer
- Atikamekw: petam
- Azerbaijani: eşitmək (az)
- Bashkir: ишетеү (işetew)
- Basque: entzun
- Belarusian: чуць impf (čucʹ), учу́ць pf (učúcʹ), ўчуць pf (ŭčucʹ)
- Belizean Creole: hyaa
- Bengali: শোনা (bn) (śōna)
- Breton: kleved (br)
- Brunei Malay: dangar
- Bulgarian: чу́вам (bg) impf (čúvam)
- Burmese: ကြား (my) (kra:)
- Catalan: sentir (ca), oir (ca)
- Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵙⵍⵍ (sll)
- Chechen: хаза (xaza)
- Cherokee: ᎠᏛᎩᎠ (advgia)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 聽到/听到 (teng1 dou3-2)
- Hokkien: 聽著/听着 (thiaⁿ-tio̍h)
- Mandarin: 聽見/听见 (zh) (tīngjiàn)
- Classical Nahuatl: caqui
- Crimean Tatar: eşitmek, tuymaq
- Czech: slyšet (cs) impf
- Danish: høre (da)
- Dutch: horen (nl)
- Egyptian: (sḏm)
- Enga: singi
- Esperanto: aŭdi (eo)
- Estonian: kuulma (et)
- Evenki: до̄лды̄мӣ (dōldīmī)
- Faroese: hoyra (fo)
- Fataluku: vari
- Finnish: kuulla (fi)
- French: entendre (fr)
- Old French: entendre
- Friulian: sintî, uldî
- Galician: oír (gl), ouvir (gl), sentir (gl)
- Ge'ez: ሰምዐ (sämʿä)
- Georgian: სმენა (smena), გაგონება (gagoneba)
- German: hören (de)
- Alemannic German: ghööre
- Gothic: 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hausjan)
- Greek: ακούω (el) (akoúo)
- Ancient: ἀκούω (akoúō); (poetic) κλύω (klúō), ἀΐω (aḯō)
- Guaraní: hendu
- Hawaiian: lohe
- Hebrew: שָׁמַע (he) (shamá')
- Higaonon: paliman
- Hindi: सुनना (hi) (sunnā)
- Hungarian: hall (hu)
- Ibanag: ginna
- Icelandic: heyra (is)
- Ido: audar (io)
- Indonesian: dengar (id)
- Ingush: хаза (xaza)
- Interlingua: audir
- Irish: clois, cluin, airigh
- Isnag: xina
- Istro-Romanian: avzi
- Italian: sentire (it), udire (it)
- Japanese: 聞く (ja) (きく, kiku), 伺う (ja) (うかがう, ukagau) (humble)
- Kambera: rongu (with inanimate object), rongung (with animate objects)
- Kannada: ಕೇಳು (kn) (kēḷu)
- Kashmiri: بوزُن (bōzun)
- Kashubian: czëc
- Kazakh: есту (kk) (estu)
- Khmer: ឮ (km) (lɨɨ), ស្ដាប់ឮ (sdap lɨɨ)
- Korean: 듣다 (ko) (deutda)
- Kumyk: эшитмек (eşitmek)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: بیستن (bîstin)
- Northern Kurdish: bîstin (ku), guh lê bûn (ku)
- Kyrgyz: угуу (ky) (uguu)
- Lao: ໄດ້ຍິນ (dai nyin)
- Latgalian: dzierdēt, izdzierst
- Latin: audio (la)
- Latvian: dzirdēt (lv)
- Lithuanian: girdėti (lt)
- Livonian: kūlõ
- Luxembourgish: héieren (lb)
- Macedonian: слуша impf (sluša), слушне pf (slušne), чуе pf (čue)
- Makasae: wali
- Malay: dengar (ms)
- Malayalam: കേൾക്കുക (ml) (kēḷkkuka)
- Maltese: sama’
- Manchu: ᡩᠣᠨᠵᡳᠮᠪᡳ (donjimbi)
- Mansaka: dungug
- Manx: clin
- Maori: oko (mi), rongo, hakiri (Indistinctly)
- Mariupol Greek: грику́ (hrikú)
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: дуулах (mn) (duulax), сонсох (mn) (sonsox)
- Nahuatl: caqui (nah)
- Nanai: долди- (dolʒi-)
- Ndzwani Comorian: ukia
- Norman: ouï
- North Frisian:
- Föhr: hiar
- Mooring and Hallig: hiire
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: høre (no)
- Nynorsk: høyra
- Occitan: ausir (oc)
- Odia: ଶୁଣିବା (or) (śuṇiba)
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: слꙑшати impf (slyšati)
- Old East Slavic: слꙑшати impf (slyšati)
- Old English: ġehīeran
- Old Norse: hǫra (East), heyra (West)
- Old Saxon: horian
- Oromo: dhaga'uu
- Pashto: اورول (awrawəl)
- Pennsylvania German: heere
- Persian: شِنیدَن (fa) (šenidan), شُنیدَن (fa) (šonidan)
- Pipil: kaki, caqui
- Polabian: slåisot
- Polish: słyszeć (pl) impf, usłyszeć (pl) pf
- Portuguese: ouvir (pt)
- Quechua: uyariy, uyay, uyarii, wiyai
- Rapa Nui: ngaro'a
- Rendille: dag
- Romanian: auzi (ro)
- Romansch: udir
- Russian: слы́шать (ru) impf (slýšatʹ), услы́шать (ru) pf (uslýšatʹ)
- S'gaw Karen: နၢ်ဟူ (na̱ hoo)
- Saho: oobbe
- Sanskrit: श्रु (sa) (śru), शृणोति (sa) (śṛṇoti)
- Sardinian: intèndhere, intendi, intèndiri, intènnere
- Scottish Gaelic: cluinn
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: чу̏ти impf, слу̏шати impf
- Roman: čȕti (sh) impf, slȕšati (sh) impf
- Shan: ငိၼ် (ngǐn), ယိၼ်း (shn) (yín) (dialectal), ၺိၼ် (nyǐn) (dialectal)
- Sicilian: sintiri (scn), sèntiri (scn)
- Sinhalese: ඇසෙනවා (æsenawā)
- Slovak: čuť impf, počuť
- Slovene: slišati (sl) impf
- Somali: maqlid
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: słyšaś impf
- Upper Sorbian: słyšeć impf
- Spanish: oír (es)
- Sranan Tongo: arki
- Swedish: höra (sv)
- Sylheti: ꠢꠥꠘꠣ (huna)
- Tagalog: marinig, makarinig
- Tahitian: faʻaroʻo
- Tajik: шунидан (tg) (šunidan)
- Tamil: கேள் (ta) (kēḷ)
- Tatar: ишетергә (tt) (işetergä)
- Tausug: dungug
- Telugu: విను (te) (vinu)
- Tetum: rona
- Thai: ได้ยิน (th) (dâi-yin)
- Tibetan: ཁོ (kho), གསན (gsan) (honorific)
- Tocharian B: klyaus-
- Tok Pisin: harim
- Turkish: işitmek (tr), duymak (tr)
- Turkmen: eşitmek
- Tuvan: дыңнаар (dıñnaar), дыңнап каар (dıñnap kaar)
- Ugaritic: 𐎌𐎎𐎓 (šmʿ)
- Ukrainian: чу́ти (uk) impf (čúty), почу́ти (počúty)
- Urdu: سُنْنا (sunnā)
- Uyghur: ئاڭلىماق (anglimaq), ئىشىتمەك (ishitmek)
- Uzbek: eshitmoq (uz), eshitib qolmoq
- Venetian: sentir
- Vietnamese: nghe (vi)
- Walloon: ôre (wa), oyî (wa), etinde (wa)
- Welsh: clywed (cy)
- West Frisian: hearre
- White Hmong: hnov
- Yiddish: הערן (hern)
- Zealandic: 'ore
- Zhuang: ndaejnyi
- ǃKung: s'aː
- ǃXóõ: ta̰ã
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to perceive sounds through the ear
See also
Interjection
hear
- you hear me
References
- “hear”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “hear”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Cimbrian
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle High German herre, from Old High German hērro, hēriro, comparative form of hēr (“gray-haired, noble, venerable”). Cognate with German Herr; see there for more.
Noun
hear m
- (Luserna) man, gentleman
References
West Frisian
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Old Frisian hār (“honorable”).
Noun
hear c (plural hearen, diminutive hearke)
- lord
- (Christianity) the Lord, God
- Wêr de Geast fan de Hear is, der is frijheid. ― Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
- nobleman
- gentleman
Derived terms
Further reading
- “hear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Etymology 2
From Old Frisian here, from Proto-West Germanic *hari.
Noun
hear c (plural hearen)
- army
- Yn âlde tiden wie Frjentsjer bilegere fan in machtich hear. ― In days gone by, Franeker was besieged by a mighty army.
- crowd
Further reading
- “hear (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011