ear

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪə̯/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪɹ/

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: -eer

From Middle English ere, eare, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”) (compare Scots ear, West Frisian ear, Dutch oor, German Ohr, Swedish öra, Danish øre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (compare Old Irish áu, Latin auris, Lithuanian ausìs, Russian у́хо (úxo), Albanian vesh, Ancient Greek οὖς (oûs), Old Armenian ունկն (unkn), and Persian گوش‎ (guš)).

ear (plural ears)

1. (countable) The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
2. (countable) The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

3. (countable, slang) A police informant.
   • 1976, Stirling Silliphant, Dean Riesner, Gail Morgan Hickman, The Enforcer.

     No I'm not kidding, and if you don't give it to me I'll let it out that you’re an ear.

4. The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or good taste in listening to music.
   • Tennyson

     songs […] not all ungrateful to thine ear

   a good ear for music

5. The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.
   • Francis Bacon

     Dionysius […] would give no ear to his suit.

   • William Shakespeare

     Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

6. That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; a prominence or projection on an object, usually for support or attachment; a lug; a handle.

   the ears of a tub, skillet, or dish;   The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow.

7. (architecture) An acroterium.
8. (architecture) A crossette.

• ere

• Tok Pisin: ia

• Pages starting with "ear".

ear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)

1. (humorous) To take in with the ears; to hear.
   • Two Noble Kinsmen

     I eared her language.

• ear on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• aural

Ears of wheat.

From Middle English eere, er, from Old English ēar (Northumbrian dialect æhher), from Proto-Germanic *ahaz (compare West Frisian ier, Dutch aar, German Ähre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) (compare Latin acus (“needle; husk”), Tocharian B āk (“ear, awn”), Old Church Slavonic ость (ostĭ, “wheat spike, sharp point”). More at edge.

ear (plural ears)

1. (countable) The fruiting body of a grain plant.

   He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.

• head
• spike

• corn earworm

ear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)

1. (intransitive) To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.

   This corn ears well.

From Old English erian, from Proto-Germanic *arjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃- (“to plough”).

ear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)

1. (archaic) To plough.
   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II:

     That power I have, discharge; and let them go

     To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,

     For I have none.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Deuteronomy 21:4:

     And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley

• ARE, Aer, ERA, REA, Rae, Rea, aer-, are, aër-, era, rea

ear

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of eō

ear

1. Alternative form of eere (“ear of grain”)

• IPA^(key): /æːɑ̯r/, [æːɑ̯r]

Akin to Old Norse aur.

ēar m

1. sea
2. earth

From Proto-Germanic *ahaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“pointed”).

ēar n

1. ear (of corn)

• æhher (Northumbria)

• Middle English: eere, ear, ere, er, ȝer, eyre
  • English: ear
  • Scots: aicher, icker, aiker (< æhher)

ear f

1. east

• iar

• an ear
• sear

From Old Frisian āre, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws.

ear n (plural earen, diminutive earke)

1. ear

• earbel
• earring

• “ear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011