hear
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- pronunciation:
- hir
- features:
- Note, Homophone Note, Word Explorer
part of speech: |
verb |
inflections: |
hears, hearing, heard |
definition 1: |
to receive sound with the ears.
Can you hear the ocean?
- antonyms:
- miss
- similar words:
- perceive, sense
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definition 2: |
to learn from someone's reporting or telling.
I heard he was coming back to town.- synonyms:
- learn
- similar words:
- find out, receive, understand
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definition 3: |
to listen to carefully.
Please hear what I have to say.- synonyms:
- listen to
- similar words:
- heed
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definition 4: |
to receive information or some form of communication.
He heard from his sister yesterday.- similar words:
- speak with, talk to
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definition 5: |
to experience an event by perceiving it with your ears.
Did you hear the President's speech last night?I heard a great song on the radio this morning. |
related words: |
arbitrate, get, judge, mark |
derivation: |
hearer (n.) |
hear or listen?
We use
hear when we are talking about the action of our ears as they receive sound. If a sound is loud enough and our ears can function, then we
hear it. We use
listen when we decide to hear something and then pay attention to it. But there is another meaning of
hear, which is
to experience something by using your ears. This meaning of
hear may seem similar to the meaning of
listen and can be confusing. When you
listen to something, you are simply paying attention to the sounds that come to your ears, but when you
hear something (in this meaning) you get knowledge and experience of a whole event, such as a song, a concert, a recording. If you've
heard something, you know it and you can now talk about it.
Compare:
- We can hear our neighbor's music in our apartment.
- Come and listen to this song!
- I can hear their conversation, but I'm not listening to it.
- I never listen to the weather report.
- We went to the theater to hear a concert.
Are you looking for the word
here (in this place)?
Hear and
here sound alike but have different meanings.