hearing
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Sense used; also, distance or physical region within.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hihringSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɪɹɪŋ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountable
The sense used to perceive sound.
countable
Something heard; a report or piece of news.
countable
The act by which something is heard; the act of perceiving by sound or the auditory sense.
uncountable
The distance or physical region within which something may be heard; earshot.
The range within which a voice can be heard
A session (of a committee or grand jury) in which witnesses are called and testimony is taken
“The investigative committee will hold hearings in Chicago.”
adjective
Able to hear, as opposed to deaf.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The sense used to perceive sound.
Used this way, hearing is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Perceive (sound) via the auditory sense.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An electronic device that amplifies sound and is worn to compensate for poor hearing.
Impairment of the sense of hearing.
Dog trained to assist the deaf by signaling the occurrence of certain sounds.
An official appointed by a government agency to conduct an investigation or administrative hearing so that the agency can exercise its statutory powers.
Impairment of the sense of hearing.
Partial or complete loss of hearing.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Listen to every detail and give a full hearing to.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.