Overhear

//oʊ.vɚˈhɪɚ// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 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."

  2. 2
    hear, usually without the knowledge of the speakers wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
catchcatcheavesdropgethearknow

Example

More examples

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I did overhear you."

Etymology

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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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.