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listen

verb
/ˈlɪs.ən/

Etymology

From Middle English listenen, listnen, alteration (due to Middle English listen (“to listen, give heed to”)) of Old English hlysnan (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hlusnijaną, *hlusnōną (compare Middle High German lüsenen), from Proto-Germanic *hlusēną (compare Old High German hlosēn), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). Cognate with Swedish lyssna (“to listen”). Compare Ancient Greek κλαίω (klaíō, “to make known, famous”), Welsh clywed (“to hear”), Latin clueō (“to be famous”), Lithuanian klausýti, Old Church Slavonic слушати (slušati, “to hear”), Sanskrit श्रोषति (śróṣati, “an exclamation used in making an offering with fire to the gods or departed spirits”) & Sanskrit श्लोक्य (ślókya, “voice, sound, noisy”)). Related to loud and German lauschen.

  1. derived from *ḱlew-✻ — “to hear”
  2. inherited from *hlusēną✻
  3. inherited from *hlusnijaną✻
  4. inherited from hlysnan — “to listen”
  5. inherited from listenen

Definitions

  1. To use one's sense of hearing and auditory cognition in an intentional way

    To use one's sense of hearing and auditory cognition in an intentional way; to make deliberate use of one's ears; to pay attention to or wait for a specific sound.

    • Please listen carefully as I explain.
    • I could hear you talking upstairs, but I didn’t really listen to your conversation.

  2. To accept advice or obey instruction

    To accept advice or obey instruction; to agree or assent.

    • Listen, the only reason I yelled at you was because I was upset, OK?
    • Good children listen to their parents.
    • Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest[…].

  3. An instance of listening.

    • Give the motor a listen and tell me if it sounds off.
    • The diss song, “Back to Back,” now has more than 124 million listens, a sign that the streaming can attract a sizable audience for a single track.
    • I hadn't spoken to her in a year, but she could still see my listens on the music platform we both used.

The neighborhood

Derived

do a listen, listenability, listenable, listen after, listener, listenership, listen in, listening, listening post, listening station, listen out, listen to you, listen up, listen with half an ear, mislisten, nonlistening, prelisten, prooflisten, pseudolisten, relisten, talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening, time spent listening, unlisten, unlistenable, unlistened, unlistening

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at listen. 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.

01listen02ears03ear04auditory05audience06listening07listens

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

7 hops · closes at listen

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