hear

/ˈhɪə//ˈhɪɚ/

hear verb: to perceive sounds through the ear.

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, but now I can hear.
(stative, transitive) To perceive (a sound, or something producing a sound) with the ear, to recognize (something) in an auditory way.
- I could hear them quarreling upstairs, but didn’t really listen to their argument.
- 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.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
Synonyms:

catch
(transitive) To exercise this faculty intentionally; to listen to.
- Agayne there was dissencion amonge the iewes for these sayinges, and many of them sayd: He hath the devyll, and is madde: why heare ye hym?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John
- 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. […]”1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court
(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.
- Adam, soon as he heard / The fatal Trespass don by Eve, amaz'd, / Astonied stood and Blank […]1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost
To be contacted by.
- I haven't heard from you in a while; how have you been?
- When I don't hear from you, My days feel long and lonely.2009, Elsa T. Aguries, The Pearl Within, →ISBN, page 141
(transitive) To listen to (a person, case) in a court of law; to try.
- Your case will be heard at the end of the month.
Synonyms:

adjudge, rule on, try, adjudicate, arbitrate, deem, doom, judge, settle
(informal, transitive) To sympathize with; to understand the feelings or opinion of.
- You're tired of all the ads on TV? I hear ya.
(Greek, transitive) To study under.
- SPHÆRUS was of Bosphorus, he first heard Zeno, then Cleanthes, and having made a sufficient progresse in learning, went to Alexandria to Ptolomy Philopater […]1656, Thomas Stanley, The History of Philosophy. The Eighth Part, Containing the Stoick Philosophers, page 15
- 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).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...

Interjection

you hear me
- Y'all come back now, hear?1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System

hear meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hear in Hindi

to perceive with the ear: सुनना sunnā

hear in Tamil

to perceive with the ear: கேள் kēḷ
To receive information about; to come to learn of: கேள்விப்படு kēḷvippaṭu

hear in Marathi

to perceive with the ear: ऐकणे aikṇe
to perceive sounds through the ear: ऐकणे aikṇe
To receive information about; to come to learn of: कानावर पडणे kānāvar paḍṇe

hear in Urdu

to perceive with the ear: سُنْنا sunnā

More languagesFewer languages

hear in Bengali: শোনা śōna
hear in Telugu: విను vinu
hear in Malayalam: കേൾക്കുക kēḷkkuka
hear in Kannada: ಕೇಳು kēḷu
hear in Punjabi: ਸੁਣਨਾ suṇanā
hear in Gujarati: સાંભળવું sā̃bhaḷvũ
hear in Odia: ଶୁଣିବା śuṇibā
hear in Sanskrit: श्रु śru, शृणोति śṛṇoti
hear in Sinhala: ඇසෙනවා æsenawā
hear in Assamese: শুন xun
hear in Nepali: सुन्नु sunnu
hear in Pashto: اورول awrawəl
hear in Tagalog: marinig, makarinig
hear in Arabic: سَمِعَ samiʕa, سَمِع samiʕ
hear in Malay: dengar
hear in Indonesian: dengar
hear in Thai: ได้ยิน dâi-yin
hear in Vietnamese: nghe
hear in Myanmar: ကြား kra:
Kashmiri: بوزُن bōzun

Examples of hear in a sentence

Have you heard from any of them since they left Nineveh?2012, Art Wiederhold, Charles Sutphen, From the Depths of Evil, →ISBN, page 343:
She left and I never heard from her again.2012, James Meredith, A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America, →ISBN:
Charmadas, never actually Head of School but a prominent Academic who had himself heard Carneades, was prepared to teach Plato’s Gorgias […]2018, “Introduction: The Old Academy to Cicero”, in Harold Tarrant et al., editors, Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in...

All 40 example sentences with hear

Synonyms of hear

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of hear

Forms of hear

third-person singular present	hears
present participle	hearing
past participle	heard
past	heard
alternative pronunciation-spelling	'ear
alternative form (obsolete)	heare

Past tense of hear: heard

Origin of hear

From Middle English har, heoren, her, here, heren, from Old English hēran, hīeran, hīran, hȳran (“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). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian hear, hiar, hiir, hiire (“to hear”), Saterland Frisian heere, here (“to hear”), West Frisian hearre (“to hear”), Bavarian hearn (“to hear”), Central Franconian hüre (“to hear”), Cimbrian hòrran, höarn (“to hear”), Dutch horen (“to hear”), German and Low German hören (“to hear”), Luxembourgish héieren (“to hear”), Yiddish הערן (hern, “to hear”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høre (“to hear”), Elfdalian ära (“to hear”), Faroese hoyra (“to hear”), Icelandic heyra (“to hear”), Norwegian Nynorsk haur, høra, høre, høyra, høyre (“to hear”), Swedish höra (“to hear”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hausjan, “to hear”); also Greek ακούγω (akoúgo), ακούω (akoúo, “to hear”), Italiot Greek κούω (koúo, “to hear”), Tocharian B āks- (“to awaken”).

Words formed from hear

Phrases with hear

Words that rhyme with hear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hear

What does hear mean?: Hear means to perceive sounds through the ear.
What is hear in Hindi?: Hear in Hindi is सुनना (sunnā). See Hear meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hear in a sentence?: Have you heard from any of them since they left Nineveh?
What part of speech is hear?: Hear can be a verb or an interjection.
How do you pronounce hear?: Hear is pronounced /ˈhɪə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of hear?: The past tense of hear is heard.

Words near hear in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: hear (page history and authors); ਸੁਣਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); સાંભળવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); सुन्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-hear.ogg, en-us-hear.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.