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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hearken.

To hear (something) with attention; to have regard to (something).

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈhɑːk(ə)n/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɑɹkən/General-American/ˈhærkən/Early, Modern/ˈhɛːrkən/Early, Modern, uncommon
  1. To hear (something) with attention; to have regard to (something).

    transitive
  2. To listen; to attend or give heed to what is uttered; to hear with attention, compliance, or obedience.

    intransitive
  3. To enquire; to seek information.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English herkenen (“to listen (attentively); to pay attention, take heed”) [and other forms], from Old English hercnian, heorcnian, hyrcnian, from *heorcian (“to hark”) infixed with -n-, from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱh₂owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared, hear well”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) + *h₂ṓws (“ear”) + *-yéti (denominative suffix), thus equivalent to hark + -en. The spelling of the English word was probably influenced by hear; a similarly analogical pronunciation existed in Early Modern English.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.