Hears

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /hɪə(ɹ)z/

Definitions

1. The process of perceiving and interpreting sound through auditory organs involves recognizing and understanding auditory stimuli
2. The action of detecting sounds by means of the auditory system
3. To become aware of noises or spoken words through the sense of hearing

Etymology: "Hears" is the third-person singular present of "hear", so its story is really the story of that verb. Old English had "hēran" and "hīeran", meaning "to hear", and the word traces back to a Proto-Indo-European phrase meaning "to be sharp-eared". That phrase combined a root for "sharp" with another for "ear", plus a suffix that turned the pair into a verb. The sense was built into the word from the start: to hear was to be keen-eared. The verb passed through Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic before reaching English, where it appears in Old English as "hēran" and "hīeran". Its relatives are widespread across the Germanic languages, including Dutch "horen", German "hören", Swedish "höra" and Icelandic "heyra", all meaning "to hear". The same ancient root also surfaces far away in Greek, where "akoúo" means "to hear".

Synonyms: listens, perceives, attends, overhears, detects

Antonyms: ignores, overlooks, misses, disregards, rejects