Learn
name, noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 The act of learning something.
"I did a quick learn of the place by watching the people shuffle in. There was a healthy mix of beautiful and freaky people, who shared a few common denominators[…]"
- 1 To acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something.
"It's time Dad learned (how) to change the oil in the car."
- 2 gain knowledge or skills wordnet
- 3 To attend a course or other educational activity.
"For, as he took delight to introduce me, I took delight to learn."
- 4 get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally wordnet
- 5 To gain knowledge from a bad experience so as to improve.
"learn from one's mistakes"
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 be a student of a certain subject wordnet
- 7 To study.
"I learn medicine."
- 8 commit to memory; learn by heart wordnet
- 9 To come to know; to become informed of; to find out.
"He just learned that he will be sacked."
- 10 impart skills or knowledge to wordnet
- 11 To teach.
"Give him a clip round the ear. That'll learn him!"
- 12 find out, learn, or determine with certainty, usually by making an inquiry or other effort wordnet
- 1 A surname from Scottish Gaelic.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I thought you liked to learn new things."
Etymology
From Middle English lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach"”), from Old English leornian (“to learn", rarely also, "to teach”), from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnōn, from Proto-Germanic *lizaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(le-)lóys-e, stative from the root *leys- (“track, furrow, trace, trail”). Cognate with Old Frisian lernia, lerna (“to learn”), Middle Low German lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach”), Middle Dutch leernen (“to learn", also, "to teach”) (whence Dutch lernen (“to study scripture”)), German lernen (“to learn”). See also lore and lear.
Possibly a reduced form of McLaren.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.