hearing Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (law) a proceeding (usually by a court) where evidence is taken for the purpose of determining an issue of fact and reaching a decision based on that evidence
  2. noun an opportunity to state your case and be heard
    audience.
    • they condemned him without a hearing
    • he saw that he had lost his audience
  3. noun the range within which a voice can be heard
    earreach; earshot.
    • the children were told to stay within earshot
  4. noun the act of hearing attentively
    listening.
    • you can learn a lot by just listening
    • they make good music--you should give them a hearing
  5. noun a session (of a committee or grand jury) in which witnesses are called and testimony is taken
    • the investigative committee will hold hearings in Chicago
  6. noun the ability to hear; the auditory faculty
    audition; auditory sense; sense of hearing; auditory modality.
    • his hearing was impaired
  7. verb perceive (sound) via the auditory sense
    hear.
  8. verb get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally
    pick up; get a line; discover; see; hear; learn; find out; get wind; get word.
    • I learned that she has two grown-up children
    • I see that you have been promoted
  9. verb examine or hear (evidence or a case) by judicial process
    try; hear.
    • The jury had heard all the evidence
    • The case will be tried in California
  10. verb receive a communication from someone
    hear.
    • We heard nothing from our son for five years
  11. verb listen and pay attention
    take heed; hear; listen.
    • Listen to your father
    • We must hear the expert before we make a decision
  12. adjective able to perceive sound

WordNet

Hear"ing noun
Definitions
  1. The act or power of perceiving sound; perception of sound; the faculty or sense by which sound is perceived; as, my hearing is good.
    I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. Job xlii. 5.
    ✍ Hearing in a special sensation, produced by stimation of the auditory nerve; the stimulus (waves of sound) acting not directly on the nerve, but through the medium of the endolymph on the delicate epithelium cells, constituting the peripheral terminations of the nerve. See Ear.
  2. Attention to what is delivered; opportunity to be heard; audience; as, I could not obtain a hearing.
  3. A listening to facts and evidence, for the sake of adjudication; a session of a court for considering proofs and determining issues.
    His last offenses to us Shall have judicious hearing. Shak.
    Another hearing before some other court. Dryden.
    ✍ Hearing, as applied to equity cases, means the same thing that the word trial does at law. Abbot.
  4. Extent within which sound may be heard; sound; earshot. "She's not within hearing." Shak.
    They laid him by the pleasant shore, And in the hearing of the wave. Tennyson.

Webster 1913