listen
Americanverb (used without object)
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to give attention with the ear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing; give ear.
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to pay attention; heed; obey (often followed byto ).
Children don't always listen to their parents.
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to wait attentively for a sound (usually followed byfor ).
to listen for sounds of their return.
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Informal. to convey a particular impression to the hearer; sound.
The new recording doesn't listen as well as the old one.
verb (used with object)
verb phrase
verb
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to concentrate on hearing something
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to take heed; pay attention
I told you many times but you wouldn't listen
Related Words
See hear.
Other Word Forms
- listener noun
- relisten verb
- unlistening adjective
Etymology
Origin of listen
First recorded before 950; Middle English lis(t)nen, Old English hlysnan; cognate with Middle High German lüsenen, Swedish lyssna; akin to list 5
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Horning said he listened politely, not entirely sure what they were getting at.
Kelly: That gives every parent of young children hope, listening to that!
From BBC
“He wasn’t listening to the Top 40 at the time,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times
What Mr. Smith calls “the hard and abiding work” is “to listen to everything, including—especially—everything in you that you would rather ignore.”
Nontraditional uses include content creation, sit-down dinners, product launches, album listening parties and workshops.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
