hearing

From hear +‎ -ing.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪə.ɹɪŋ/, /ˈhɪː.ɹɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɪɹ.ɪŋ/

  • Audio (California):

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  • Audio (Texas):

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  • Audio (Connecticut):

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• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈhiː.ɹɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹɪŋ

hearing (comparative more hearing, superlative most hearing)

1. Able to hear, as opposed to deaf.

   Deaf people often must deal with hearing people.

• deaf
• nonhearing

hearing (countable and uncountable, plural hearings)

1. (uncountable) The sense used to perceive sound.

   My hearing isn't what it used to be, but I still heard that noise.

2. (uncountable) The distance or physical region within which something may be heard; earshot.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.

3. (countable) Something heard; a report or piece of news.
   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 159:

     More evidence followed. Evidence as to the financial difficulties in which the prisoner had found himself at the end of July. Evidence as to his intrigue with Mrs. Raikes—poor Mary, that must have been bitter hearing for a woman of her pride.

4. (countable) The act by which something is heard; the act of perceiving by sound or the auditory sense.
   • 2004, Timothy D. J. Chappell, Reading Plato's Theaetetus, page 73:

     To such perceivings we give names like these: seeings, hearings, smellings, chillings and burnings, pleasures and pains, desires […]

5. (uncountable) A proceeding at which discussions are heard.

   There will be a public hearing to discuss the new traffic light.

6. (countable, law) A legal procedure done before a judge, without a jury, as with an evidentiary hearing.
   • 2012 August 21, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian:

     Next month, Clemons will be brought before a court presided over by a "special master", who will review the case one last time. The hearing will be unprecedented in its remit, but at its core will be a simple issue: should Reggie Clemons live or die?

7. (informal, dated) A scolding.

hearing

1. present participle and gerund of hear