listening

listening — verb

1. to make a conscious effort to hear a person's voice, music, or other sounds, giv

1.verbintransitiveA1
Definition

to make a conscious effort to hear a person's voice, music, or other sounds, giving them your full attention so you can understand or enjoy them

Example

The librarian asked the children to stop talking and listen to the story.

pattern: stop + verb-ing, and + listen + to + noun

Jisoo put down her phone and listened carefully to what her mother was saying.

listen + carefully + to + wh-clause

Common collocations
  • listen carefully
  • listen attentively
  • listen closely
  • listen to music
  • listen to advice
  • listen to a speech
  • listen for the doorbell
  • listen for footsteps
  • stop and listen
  • sit and listen
Synonyms
  • hear

    Hearing can happen without any effort on your part (e.g., hearing traffic outside). Listening always involves a conscious choice to pay attention.

  • pay attention (to)

    Broader than listen — you can pay attention to a visual demonstration or a text, not just sounds.

Antonyms
  • ignore

    To ignore is to deliberately not listen or pay attention to someone or something.

  • tune out

    Informal; to stop listening on purpose, especially when bored or distracted.

Grammar Patterns

listen + to + noun / pronoun

listen + for + noun phrase

listen + to + noun + verb-ing

listening + to + noun (gerund as subject)

Usage Note

Unlike 'hear,' which can happen without effort, 'listen' always requires deliberate attention. When mentioning the thing being heard, the preposition 'to' is required: 'listen to music', not 'listen music'. The structure 'listen for' is used when you are waiting to catch an expected sound, such as a doorbell or a baby's cry.

Common Mistakes

I listened music all night while studying.
I listened to music all night while studying.
The preposition 'to' must follow 'listen' when the thing being heard is named.
Please listen me carefully.
Please listen to me carefully.
'Listen' is intransitive and cannot take a direct object; it needs 'to' before a pronoun.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Hear and listen both relate to sounds reaching the ears, but they differ in intention. Hearing is passive — sounds enter your ears whether you want them to or not, like hearing a car horn outside while you work. Listening is active and deliberate: you choose to focus your attention on a sound or speaker. Pay attention is broader than listen — you can pay attention to a visual demonstration or a written document, not only sounds. Overhear means accidentally catching a conversation not intended for you, without any effort. Eavesdrop goes a step further: it means secretly listening to someone else's private conversation on purpose. For example, 'I heard the neighbours arguing while I was listening to my favourite podcast,' and 'She accidentally overheard her colleagues talking about the surprise party.'

listen ↗hear ↗pay attentionoverhear ↗eavesdrop

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • listen with interest
  • listen with patience
  • stop and listen
  • sit and listen

Prepositions

Etymology

Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-GermanicOld EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

The word listening comes from the Old English verb hlysnan, meaning 'to pay attention to sounds.' This goes back to the Proto-Germanic root *hlusinōn, which in turn traces to the Proto-Indo-European root *kleu-, meaning 'to hear.' The same ancient root gave rise to words in many other languages, such as the Greek κλύω (klýō, 'I hear'), the Latin cluere ('to be called, be heard of'), and the German lauschen ('to listen secretly').