learn

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To gain knowledge or a skill, especially by studying or practising.

   I learned to dance from my friends.

2. 2
   verb

   To find out or become aware of something.

   I learned that they have two grown-up children.

3. 3
   verb

   To fix something in your memory.

   We had to learn the poem by heart.

4. 4
   verb

   To gain understanding from an experience, especially a bad one.

   You should learn from your mistakes.

Common collocations

• learn a dance Verb + noun
• learn a song Verb + noun
• learn magic Verb + noun

From Middle English lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach"”), from Old English leornian (“to learn", rarely also, "to teach”), from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnōn, from Proto-Germanic *lizaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(le-)lóys-e, stative from the root *leys- (“track, furrow, trace, trail”). Cognate with Old Frisian lernia, lerna (“to learn”), Middle Low German lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach”), Middle Dutch leernen (“to learn", also, "to teach”) (whence Dutch lernen (“to study scripture”)), German lernen (“to learn”). See also lore and lear.

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