ear
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪə̯/
ipa: [ɪː]
ipa: [iː.ə]
ipa: /ɪɹ/
ipa: /iɹ/
ipa: /i˞/
ipa: /ɪə̯/
ipa: [ɪː]
ipa: [ɪə̯~ɪɐ̯]
ipa: /iə̯/
ipa: [iːə̯]
ipa: [ɪə̯~eə̯]
ipa: /iɹ/
ipa: [iːɹ]
note: East Anglia, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /ɛː/
homophone: air
homophone: heir (both cheer–chair merger)
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: ears
form: ere
Etymology: From Middle English ere, eare, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”) (compare Scots ear, West Frisian ear, Dutch oor, German Ohr, Swedish öra, Danish øre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (compare Old Irish áu, Latin auris, Lithuanian ausi̇̀s, Russian у́хо (úxo), Albanian vesh, Ancient Greek οὖς (oûs), and Old Armenian ունկն (unkn).
Senses: glosses: The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
examples: text: Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.
examples: text: No I'm not kidding, and if you don't give it to me I'll let it out that you’re an ear.
ref: 1976, Stirling Silliphant, Dean Riesner, Gail Morgan Hickman, The Enforcer:
glosses: A police informant.
examples: text: a good ear for music
text: songs[…]not all ungrateful to thine ear
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “(please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
glosses: The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or good taste in listening to music.
examples: text: Dionysius[…]would give no ear to his suit.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC:
text: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: They don’t know if they’re going to have a job in a week or a month. They don’t know if they can pay the rising prices. Instead of the paradise they expected July 1, their total existence is unsure. That some foreigners get beaten—nobody has an ear for that now.
ref: 1990 August 19, Uwe Stelbrink, quotee, “Fear and uncertainty breed xenophobia in E. Germany”, in Democrat and Chronicle, volume 158, Rochester, N.Y., page 5A:
glosses: The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.
examples: text: the ears of a tub, skillet, or dish; The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow.
text: When they got as far as the little valley north of Oppenhagen - where the land-slip took place - he thought he sat between the ears of a bucket; but shortly this vanished also, and it was only then he really came to himself again.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 291:
coordinate_terms: boss
eye
glosses: That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; a prominence or projection on an object, usually for support or attachment; a lug; a handle; a foot-rest or step of a spade or a similar digging tool.
topics: architecture
glosses: An acroterium.
topics: architecture
glosses: A crossette.
examples: text: In journalism, ears flank the title as boxes in the left and right top corners of a publication (generally a newspaper).
ref: 2006, Richard Weiner, Charles M. Levine, The Skinny about Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo, page 26:
topics: journalism
media
glosses: A space to the left or right of a publication's front-page title, used for advertising, weather, etc.
topics: baking
cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: A curled ridge in the crust of a loaf of bread where the dough was slashed before going into the oven and expands during baking.
topics: business
clothing
fashion
lifestyle
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: The outer panels or flaps (protrusions) of a diaper upon which the fasteners are located, which are fastened around the wearer's waist.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A path whose endpoints may coincide but in which otherwise there are no repetitions of vertices or edges.
Synonyms: word: ear
word: earball
word: King Lear
word: listener
word: lug
word: shell-like
Hypernyms: word: body part
word: organ
Hyponyms: word: cauliflower ear
word: jug ears
Meronyms: word: auricle
word: auricula
word: pinna
word: outer ear
word: auditory canal
word: eardrum
word: malleus
word: incus
word: stapes
word: cochlea
Derived terms: word: ass's-ear abalone
word: bangle ear
word: bat ear
word: bear's ear
word: behind the ear
word: bend somebody's ear
word: bend someone's ear
word: between the ears
word: bionic ear
word: blow it out one's ear
word: blue ear disease
word: blue-ear disease
word: blue-ear pig disease
word: bunny ear cactus
word: burnt ear
word: button ear
word: by ear
word: cat's ear
word: cauliflower ear
word: closed-ear
word: close-ear
word: cloud ear
word: crop-ear
word: cuff on the ear
word: cute as a bug's ear
word: devil's ear
word: dog ear
word: dog-ear
word: dog's-ear
word: earache
word: ear-achingly
word: earage
word: earal
word: earball
word: earbanger
word: earbash
word: earbasher
word: ear beer
word: ear bob
word: earbob
word: earbone
word: ear bone
word: ear-bud
word: ear bud
word: earbud
word: ear canal
word: ear candle
word: ear candling
word: ear candy
word: earcap
word: ear chair
word: earclip
word: earcockle
word: ear cockle
word: earcon
word: ear coning
word: earcup
word: ear dagger
word: ear defender
word: eardrop
word: ear drop
word: eardropper
word: ear drops
word: ear drum
word: eardrum
word: eared
word: ear fatigue
word: ear finger
word: ear-finger
word: earflap
word: earflare
word: earful
word: eargasm
word: eargasmic
word: ear hair
word: earhole
word: earhorn
word: ear hustle
word: ear jacket
word: earlap
word: earless
word: earlet
word: ear level
word: earlid
word: earlike
word: ear lobe
word: earlobe
word: earlock
word: earloop
word: earmark
word: ear-minded
word: earmold
word: earmould
word: earmuff
word: earnut
word: earpad
word: earphone
word: earpick
word: earpiece
word: ear-piercing
word: ear-piercingly
word: earplug
word: ear prick
word: earprint
word: ear range
word: ear-rape
word: ear rape
word: earreach
word: ear-reach
word: earring
word: ear rocks
word: ears are burning
word: earset
word: ear-shattering
word: ear shell
word: ear-shell
word: earshot
word: earshrift
word: earsies
word: earsore
word: ear speaker
word: ear-splitting
word: earsplitting
word: ear-splittingly
word: earspool
word: ear-spoon
word: ear spoon
word: earspoon
word: earstone
word: ear tag
word: ear-tag
word: ear-tagged
word: ear toilet
word: ear to the ground
word: ear training
word: ear-trumpet
word: ear trumpet
word: ear tuft
word: ear tunnel
word: earware
word: ear wax
word: ear-wax
word: earwax
word: earwear
word: earwitness
word: earwork
word: ear worm
word: ear-worm
word: earworm
word: ear-wormy
word: earworthy
word: elephant ear
word: elephant-ear tree
word: elephant's ear
word: external ear
word: flea in one's ear
word: get out of someone's ear
word: give ear
word: glue ear
word: go in at one ear and at out the other
word: go in one ear and out the other
word: golden ear
word: green ear disease
word: grin from ear to ear
word: hare's ear
word: hart's ear
word: have a word in someone's ear
word: have one's ears lowered
word: have one's ears on
word: have someone's ear
word: have the wolf by the ear
word: have Van Gogh's ear for music
word: hearing-ear dog
word: helicopter ear
word: hookeared
word: in-ear
word: in-ear monitor
word: inner ear
word: internal ear
word: in the ear
word: jelly ear
word: Jew's ear
word: Jew's-ear
word: Judas-ear
word: knife-ear
word: knife ear
word: lend an ear
word: lion's ear
word: listen with half an ear
word: little pitchers have big ears
word: longear
word: make a pig's ear of
word: make a silk purse of a sow's ear
word: Midas's ear
word: middle ear
word: mind's ear
word: monkey-ear tree
word: mouse-ear
word: mouse-ear hawkweed
word: mule's ear
word: musical ear syndrome
word: music to someone's ears
word: offensive to pious ears
word: open-ear
word: outer ear
word: out on one's ear
word: pig's ear
word: play by ear
word: pour honey in one's ear
word: pour honey into one's ear
word: put a bug in someone's ear
word: rabbit ear
word: rabbit-ear iris
word: rabbit ear mite
word: red ear syndrome
word: roasting ear
word: rose ear
word: round-ear
word: scalp-ear-nipple syndrome
word: sea-ear
word: sea ear
word: smile from ear to ear
word: surfer's ear
word: swimmer's ear
word: talk out of one's ear
word: talk someone's ear off
word: thick ear
word: tickle the ear
word: tin ear
word: tree ear
word: turn a deaf ear
word: up on one's ear
word: violetear
word: walls have ears
word: wheatear
word: white-ear
word: Wildermuth ear
word: Wildermuth's ear
word: wood ear
word: wood-ear
word: you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear
english: ear
translation: ear
urls: https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:English+lemmas&from=ear#mw-pages
word: English terms starting with