hear

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   receive a communication from someone

   We heard nothing from our son for five years

2. 2
   verb

   examine or hear evidence or a case by judicial process

   The jury had heard all the evidence.

3. 3
   verb

   To perceive sounds through the ear.

   I was deaf, but now I can hear.

4. 4
   verb

   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.

5. 5
   verb

   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?

6. 6
   verb

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

   Eventually the king chose to hear her entreaties.

7. 7
   verb

   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 […]

8. 8
   verb

   To be contacted by.

   I haven't heard from you in a while; how have you been?

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…