listening
Syllables: lis·ten·ing/ˈlɪs.nɪŋ/
listening adjective: of something or someone that listens. Also the present participle and gerund of listen.
Adjective
listening (not comparable)
- Of something or someone that listens.
- Any listening person can tell she's lying.
- Of something that is used in order to hear or to improve the ability to hear.
- He could hear better when he used his listening device.
- Of an action that is performed with caution and attention to sounds.
- The safest cover lay close under the wall of the cañon, and here through the dense thickets Venters made his slow, listening advance toward the oval.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 5, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC
Noun
listening (plural listenings)
- An act by which something or somebody is listened to.
- This symphony grows on me more and more with each listening.
- It is an album that rewards multiple listenings.2010 May 3, Michael Senior, “CD Review: Massive Attack, "Heligoland"”, in The Oklahoman, archived from the original on 03 Jan 2024
- An educational exercise involving listening.
- OK, students, today we're going to do a couple of listenings about the environment, then a reading about crime.
- Skill or ability of perceiving spoken language.
- You can improve your listening well by watching English-language films.
Also used as
listening is also the present participle and gerund of listen.
listening meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu
listening in Hindi
- सुन रहे हैं
listening in Tamil
- கேட்பது
listening in Bengali
- শুনছেন, শুনছে
listening in Telugu
- వినడం
More languagesFewer languages
- listening in Malayalam
- കേൾക്കുന്നു, കേൾക്കൽ
- listening in Kannada
- ಕೇಳುವುದು
- listening in Punjabi
- ਸੁਣਦੇ ਹੋਏ
- listening in Gujarati
- સાંભળીને
- listening in Odia
- ଶୁଣୁଛି
- listening in Arabic
- اِسْتِمَاع istimāʕ
- listening in Indonesian
- kemampuan mendengar, kemampuan menyimak
Forms of listening
| plural | listenings |
|---|
Origin of listening
From Middle English listnynge, lustninde, from Old English hlysnende, equivalent to listen + -ing.
From Middle English listnynge, lustnynge, lystenynge, equivalent to listen + -ing.
Words formed from listening
Phrases with listening
Questions about listening
- What does listening mean?
- Listening means of something or someone that listens.
- What is listening in Hindi?
- Listening in Hindi is सुन रहे हैं. See Listening meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is listening?
- Listening can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce listening?
- Listening is pronounced /ˈlɪs.nɪŋ/.
Words near listening in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: listening (page history and authors); listening (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); listening (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-listening.ogg.
Cite this entry: “listening.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/listening. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.