hear

/ˈhɪɚ/verb, interjection

hear is spelled H-E-A-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “hear vs here” about 720 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, hear means “To perceive sounds through the ear” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in hear?

Letters	4: H-E-A-R
Syllables	1
In writing	170 times per million words; the 591st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Pairs people search	hear vs here
Sounds like	hir
Rhymes with	premier premiere unclear interfere more
Same letters	hare rhea hera

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 hear?

Hear appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st most frequent word form in the list.

hear0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

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

How do you pronounce hear?

UK /ˈhɪə/
US /ˈhɪɚ/
US [ˈhɪɹ̩]

Hear has one syllable.

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

Words people confuse with hear

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

hear vs here720 G

Sounds like: hir (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

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

What rhymes with hear?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hear from its last stressed vowel (/ɪəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: hare, rhea, hera.

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 hear

hears present, singular, he/she/it
hearing participle, present
heard participle, past
'ear

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

What does hear mean?

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

verb

1
To perceive sounds through the ear.
I was deaf, but now I can hear.
2
To perceive (a sound, or something producing a sound) with the ear, to recognize (something) in an auditory way.
I could hear them quarreling upstairs, but didn’t really listen to their argument.
3
To exercise this faculty intentionally; to listen to.
4
To listen favourably to; to grant (a request etc.).
Eventually the king chose to hear her entreaties.
5
To receive information about; to come to learn of.
6
To be contacted by.
I haven't heard from you in a while; how have you been?
7
To listen to (a person, case) in a court of law; to try.
Your case will be heard at the end of the month.
8
informalTo sympathize with; to understand the feelings or opinion of.
You're tired of all the ads on TV? I hear ya.

interjection

1
you hear me