Ear or year?
ear is a noun meaning “The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal…”; year is a noun meaning “A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) year is about 34 times as common as ear.
What is the difference between ear and year?
| ear | year | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle To take in with the ears; to hear | A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons The time taken for the Earth to return to the same position along the ecliptic, completing a full cycle of seasons; a tropical year or solar year |
| Example | a good ear for music | we moved to this town a year ago; I quit smoking exactly one year ago |
| Forms | ears | years |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɪə̯/ [ˈɪː] [ˈiːə] | /jɪə/ /jɪː/ /jɪjə/ |
| In writing | 27 times per million words | 912 times per million words |
Sources: ear and year in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ear and year
ear
- 1
The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea
- 2
To take in with the ears; to hear
- 3
The fruiting body of a grain plant
He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn
- 4
To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does
This corn ears well
- 5
Pronunciation spelling of hear
- 6
Initialism of Enterprise Application Archive, a file format used to package Java applications
- 7
The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle
- 8
To hold by the ears
year
- 1
A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons
we moved to this town a year ago; I quit smoking exactly one year ago
- 2
Pronunciation spelling of here
- 3
The time taken for the Earth to return to the same position along the ecliptic, completing a full cycle of seasons; a tropical year or solar year
- 4
Pronunciation spelling of hear
- 5
The time taken for the Earth to orbit the Sun with respect to the fixed stars; a sidereal year
- 6
The length of twelve lunations; the time taken for any moon phase to happen twelve times; a lunar year
- 7
The length of a year as marked by a calendar, 365 or 366 days in the Gregorian calendar; a calendar year
- 8
The mean length of a calendar year in the Julian calendar, that is, 365.25 solar days; a Julian year
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ear or year?
ear appears 27 times per million words; year 912 times per million words.
ear 27 times per million wordsyear 912 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).