hear

• heare (obsolete)
• 'ear (pronunciation spelling)

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).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɪə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɪəɹ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [hiːɹ]
• (Wales) IPA^(key): /hjɜː/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophones: here, hir

hear (third-person singular simple present hears, present participle hearing, simple past and past participle heard)

1. (intransitive, stative) To perceive sounds through the ear. [from 10th c.]

   I was deaf, and now I can hear.

2. (transitive, stative) To perceive (a sound, or something producing a sound) with the ear, to recognize (something) in an auditory way. [from 10th c.]

   I heard a sound from outside the window.

   • 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:

     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.

3. (transitive) To exercise this faculty intentionally; to listen to. [from 10th c.]
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John:

     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?

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     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. (transitive) To listen favourably to; to grant (a request etc.). [from 10th c.]

   Eventually the king chose to hear her entreaties.

5. (transitive) To receive information about; to come to learn of. [from 10th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     Adam, soon as he heard / The fatal Trespass don by Eve, amaz'd, / Astonied stood and Blank […]

6. (with from) To be contacted by.
   • 2009, Elsa T. Aguries, The Pearl Within, →ISBN, page 141:

     When I don't hear from you, My days feel long and lonely.

   • 2012, Art Wiederhold, Charles Sutphen, From the Depths of Evil, →ISBN, page 343:

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

   • 2012, James Meredith, A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America, →ISBN:

     She left and I never heard from her again.

7. (transitive, law) To listen to (a person, case) in a court of law; to try. [from 12th c.]

   Your case will be heard at the end of the month.

8. (transitive, informal) To sympathize with; to understand the feelings or opinion of.

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

9. (transitive, Greek philosophy) To study under.
   • 1656, Thomas Stanley, The History of Philosophy. The Eighth Part, Containing the Stoick Philosophers, page 15:

     SPHÆRUS was of Bosphorus, he first heard Zeno, then Cleanthes, and having made a sufficient progresse in learning, went to Alexandria to Ptolomy Philopater […]

   • 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, published 2016, →ISBN, pages 130–31:

     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).

   • 2018, “Introduction: The Old Academy to Cicero”, in Harold Tarrant et al., editors, Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity, →ISBN, pages 24–25:

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

• This is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

• audible
• deaf
• listen

hear

1. you hear me
   • 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

     Y'all come back now, hear?

• “hear”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “hear”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Ahre, Hare, Hera, RHAe, Rahe, Rhea, hare, hera, rhea

• hèere (Sette Comuni)

From Middle High German herre, from Old High German hērro, hēriro, comparative form of hēr (“gray-haired, noble, venerable”). Cognate with German Herr; see there for more.

hear m

1. (Luserna) man, gentleman

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

• IPA^(key): /hɪə̯r/

From Old Frisian hār (“honorable”).

hear c (plural hearen, diminutive hearke)

1. lord
2. (Christianity) the Lord, God

   Wêr de Geast fan de Hear is, der is frijheid. ― Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

3. nobleman
4. gentleman

• leavehearsbistke
• mynhear

• “hear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

From Old Frisian here, from Proto-West Germanic *hari.

hear c (plural hearen)

1. army

   Yn âlde tiden wie Frjentsjer bilegere fan in machtich hear. ― In days gone by, Franeker was besieged by a mighty army.

2. crowd

• “hear (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011