listen
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: lĭs'ən
enpr: lĭs'n
ipa: /ˈlɪs.n̩/
ipa: [ˈlɪs.n̩]
rhymes: -ɪsən
Forms: form: listens
form: listening
form: listened
form: listened
form: lisen
form: lis'en
form: lissen
Etymology: From Middle English listenen, listnen, alteration (due to Middle English listen (“to listen, give heed to”)) of Old English hlysnan (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hlusnijaną, *hlusnōną (compare Middle High German lüsenen), from Proto-Germanic *hlusēną (compare Old High German hlosēn), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”).
Cognate with Swedish lyssna (“to listen”).
Compare Ancient Greek κλαίω (klaíō, “I make known, famous”), Welsh clywed (“to hear”), Latin clueō (“I am famous”), Lithuanian klausýti, Old Church Slavonic слушати (slušati, “to hear”), Sanskrit श्रोषति (śróṣati, “an exclamation used in making an offering with fire to the gods or departed spirits”) & Sanskrit श्लोक्य (ślókya, “voice, sound, noisy”)).
Related to loud and German lauschen.
Senses: examples: text: Please listen carefully as I explain.
text: I could hear you talking upstairs, but I didn’t really listen to your conversation.
text: It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
ref: 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:
text: He reined Wrangle to a walk, halted now and then to listen, and then proceeded cautiously with shifting and alert gaze.
ref: 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 4, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
text: He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: (transitive, archaic)
Listen the watchman’s cry upon the wall.
text: 'But, sir, lyars ye have lystened, and that hath caused grete debate betwyxte you and me.'
ref: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XX:
text: Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
text: Here laid his Scrip, with wholesome Viands fill'd, / There, listening every Noise, his watchful Dog.
ref: a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:
text: [with to]
I like to listen to music.
text: I'm listening to what you say / Even though I look the other way / But you could never understand / The feeling of what I'm needing
ref: 2007, KT Tunstall, “Saving My Face”, in Drastic Fantastic:
text: [with for]
You should listen for the starting gun.
synonyms: heed
mind
note
pay attention
attend
antonyms: ignore
info_templates: extra_data: words: to
expansion: [with to]
extra_data: words: for
expansion: [with for]
qualifier: intransitive except in archaic usage
glosses: To use one's sense of hearing and auditory cognition in an intentional way; to make deliberate use of one's ears; to pay attention to or wait for a specific sound.
examples: text: Listen, the only reason I yelled at you was because I was upset, OK?
text: Good children listen to their parents.
text: Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest[…].
ref: 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
synonyms: mind
antonyms: disregard
glosses: To accept advice or obey instruction; to agree or assent.
Synonyms: word: attend
word: be all ears
word: behear
word: earball
word: give ear
word: hark
word: harken
word: heed
word: lend an ear
word: list
word: listen close
word: mind
word: note
Hypernyms: word: hear
word: pay attention
Hyponyms: word: auscultate
Coordinate terms: speak
talk
Derived terms: do a listen
listenability
listenable
listen after
listener
listenership
listen in
listening
listening post
listening station
listen out
listen up
listen with half an ear
mislisten
nonlistening
prelisten
prooflisten
pseudolisten
relisten
talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening
time spent listening
unlisten
unlistenable
unlistened
unlistening
Related terms: word: list
word: listful
word: obey
word: sound