Etimology
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).
verb
hear (third-person singular simple present hears, present participle hearing, simple past and past participle heard)
(intransitive, stative) To perceive sounds through the ear. [from 10th c.]
(transitive, stative) To perceive (a sound, or something producing a sound) with the ear, to recognize (something) in an auditory way. [from 10th c.]
(transitive) To exercise this faculty intentionally; to listen to. [from 10th c.]
(transitive) To listen favourably to; to grant (a request etc.). [from 10th c.]
(transitive) To receive information about; to come to learn of. [from 10th c.]
(with from) To be contacted by.
(transitive, law) To listen to (a person, case) in a court of law; to try. [from 12th c.]
(transitive, informal) To sympathize with; to understand the feelings or opinion of.
(transitive, Greek philosophy) To study under.
Examples
I was deaf, and now I can hear.
I heard a sound from outside the window.
Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
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?
It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”
Eventually the king chose to hear her entreaties.
Adam, soon as he heard / The fatal Trespass don by Eve, amaz'd, / Astonied stood and Blank […]
When I don't hear from you, My days feel long and lonely.
They're ten hours overdue. Have you heard from any of them since they left Nineveh?
She left and I never heard from her again.
Your case will be heard at the end of the month.
You're tired of all the ads on TV? I hear ya.
SPHÆRUS was of Bosphorus, he first heard Zeno, then Cleanthes, and having made a sufficient progresse in learning, went to Alexandria to Ptolomy Philopater […]
Ammonius, the teacher of both Simplicius and Philoponus, tells us how Julian gave a ruling […] in favor of Maximus, who had heard Iamblichus, and followed him and Porphyry .
Charmadas, never actually Head of School but a prominent Academic who had himself heard Carneades, was prepared to teach Plato’s Gorgias […]
interjection
hear
you hear me
Examples
Y'all come back now, hear?