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hear

verb
/ˈhɪə/UK/ˈhɪɚ/CA/ˈhiː/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan Old English hīeran Middle English heren English hear 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). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian heere (“to hear”), West Frisian hearre (“to hear”), Dutch horen (“to hear”), German hören (“to hear”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høre (“to hear”), Norwegian Nynorsk høyra (“to hear”), Swedish höra (“to hear”), Icelandic heyra (“to hear”), Ancient Greek ἀκούω (akoúō, “to hear”).

  1. inherited from *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti✻
  2. inherited from *hauzijaną✻
  3. inherited from *hauʀijan✻
  4. inherited from hīeran
  5. inherited from heren

Definitions

  1. To perceive sounds through the ear.

    • I was deaf, but now I can hear.

  2. To perceive (a sound, or something producing a sound) with the ear, to recognize…

    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.

  3. To exercise this faculty intentionally

    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?
    • 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. […]”
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. To listen favourably to

      To listen favourably to; to grant (a request etc.).

      • Eventually the king chose to hear her entreaties.

    2. To receive information about

      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 […]

    3. 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.
      • They're ten hours overdue. Have you heard from any of them since they left Nineveh?

    4. To listen to (a person, case) in a court of 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.

    5. To sympathize with

      To sympathize with; to understand the feelings or opinion of.

      • You're tired of all the ads on TV? I hear ya.

    6. 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 […]
      • 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).
      • Charmadas, never actually Head of School but a prominent Academic who had himself heard Carneades, was prepared to teach Plato’s Gorgias […]

    7. you hear me

      • Y'all come back now, hear?

The neighborhood

Derived

another county heard from, behear, children should be seen and not heard, could hear a pin drop, forehear, hard of hearing, hark, hearability, hearable, hear both sides, hearer, hear from, hear hear, hearie, hearing aid, hear me out, hear of, hear oneself think, hear on the grapevine, hear out, hearsay, hearsome, hear tell, hear the end of it, hear the grass grow, hear the last of, hear things, hear-through, hear through the grapevine, hear voices, hear what I'm saying, hear ye, I can't hear you over the sound of, I hear you say, I've never heard it called that before, last I heard, let's hear it for someone, long time no hear, mishear, now hear this · +15 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at hear. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01hear02perceive03interpret04intelligible05understood06comprehension07thorough08miss09catch10hearing

A definitional loop anchored at hear. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at hear

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA