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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

listening.

Of something or someone that listens.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈlɪs.nɪŋ//ˈlɪs.ə.nɪŋ/
  1. Of something or someone that listens.

    not-comparable
    Any listening person can tell she's lying.
  2. Of something that is used in order to hear or to improve the ability to hear.

    not-comparable
    He could hear better when he used his listening device.
  3. Of an action that is performed with caution and attention to sounds.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English listnynge, lustninde, from Old English hlysnende, equivalent to listen + -ing.

noun/ˈlɪs.nɪŋ//ˈlɪs.ə.nɪŋ/
  1. An act by which something or somebody is listened to.

    This symphony grows on me more and more with each listening.
  2. An educational exercise involving listening.

    OK, students, today we're going to do a couple of listenings about the environment, then a reading about crime.
  3. Skill or ability of perceiving spoken language.

    You can improve your listening well by watching English-language films.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English listnynge, lustnynge, lystenynge, equivalent to listen + -ing.

verb/ˈlɪs.nɪŋ//ˈlɪs.ə.nɪŋ/
  1. present participle and gerund of listen

    form-of · gerund · participle · present
Where this word comes from

From Middle English listnynge, lustninde, from Old English hlysnende, equivalent to listen + -ing.

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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.