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PlainSpell

ear

UK /ˈɪə̯/noun, verb

ear is spelled E-A-R: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ear means “The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ear is ears.

How many letters and syllables are in ear?

Letters3: E-A-R
Syllables1
In writing27 times per million words; the 3,422nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ear?

Ear appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ear?

  • UK /ˈɪə̯/
  • UK [ˈɪː]
  • UK [ˈiːə]

Ear has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-ear.ogg, En-ca-ear.ogg, En-us-ear.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with ear

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

ear vs year0 B

Also written: ear, nose, and throat, ere.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with ear?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ear from its last stressed vowel (/ɪə/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: are, era, rea.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ear

  • ears plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • ere
  • earing participle, present
  • eared participle, past
  • 'ears present, singular, he/she/it
  • 'earing participle, present
  • 'eard participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ear mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.

  2. 2

    The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.

  3. 3

    slangA police informant.

  4. 4

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

    a good ear for music

  5. 5

    The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.

  6. 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; a foot-rest or step of a spade or a similar digging tool.

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

  7. 7

    An acroterium.

  8. 8

    A crossette.

  9. 9

    The fruiting body of a grain plant.

    He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.

verb

  1. 1

    To take in with the ears; to hear.

  2. 2

    To hold by the ears.

  3. 3

    To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.

    This corn ears well.

  4. 4

    archaicTo plough.

noun

as EAR
  1. 1

    Initialism of Enterprise Application Archive, a file format used to package Java applications.

  2. 2

    Initialism of estimated average requirements.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ear in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchoreille (organ of hearing), indic, balance, mouchard (slang: police informant), épi (fruiting body of a grain plant), monter en épi (to put forth ears in growing)
GermanOhr (organ of hearing), Informant, Spitzel (slang: police informant), Ähre, Getreideähre (fruiting body of a grain plant), Ausbund (curled ridge on bread crust)
Portugueseouvido, orelha (organ of hearing), espiga (fruiting body of a grain plant), arar (archaic: to plough)
Spanishoído, oreja (organ of hearing), espiga (fruiting body of a grain plant), espigar (to put forth ears in growing), arar (archaic: to plough)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ear come from?

From Middle English eare, eere, ere, eyr, ire, yere, ȝhere, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (“ear”), from *h₂ew- (“to perceive”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ear