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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

overhear.

To hear something that was not meant for one's ears.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/oʊ.vɚˈhɪɚ/US
  1. To hear something that was not meant for one's ears.

    ambitransitive
    I was hanging clothes in the garden and I overheard the neighbours talking about Sheila's pregnancy.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English overheren, from Old English oferhīeran (“to overhear, hear, disobey, disregard, neglect”), equivalent to over- + hear. Cognate with Dutch overhoren (“to hear, hear about”), German überhören (“to not hear, ignore”), Danish overhøre (“to overhear”), Icelandic yfirheyra (“to hear”), Gothic *𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (*ufarhausjan, “to disregard, disobey”) (in 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (ufarhauseins)).

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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.