Word meaning not listening

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I posed this question on one of the many English language forums which abound in the Internet. It appears that there is no single word (even a loanword) that can answer my question.

The word «overhear» means «to hear by accident».

What is the word that can describe «to hear but not listen«? Or is there any such word (loanword or otherwise) at all that can be used to effectively describe such a situation?

Well, really, the word ‘hear‘ is the correct term.

«Listen» means a deliberate

active

concentration of attention on sound, like ‘hearken’, ‘heed’, attend’, ‘eavesdrop’.

«Hear» is the only word which means be aurally aware of, but not attentive to.

This is why the modern ‘brush off acknowledgement’ is so galling to most people — «I hear you».
It means «I am aware of the sound of your voice, but I’m not paying attention.»

It is very easy to see things but not notice them. There is active and passive.

It is very hard to hear things but not listen to them. For example overhearing something — it is not a choice , it just happens.

If you do ‘switch it off’ you tend to block it completely — you don’t hear it.
Unless you are talking more about the difference between hearing and really paying attention to something.

The determinant is the word «attention». With attention, the act of «hearing» becomes «listening». Therefore, the very act of not paying attention could be said to be «inattentiveness».

But can «inattentiveness» be only attached to «hearing but not listening»? To me, this appears to be somewhat a blanket term which also includes haptic, ocular, and olfactory senses.

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There are a variety of meanings attached to the word «hear». I’ll restrict myself to your intended sense. «Hear» is to be aware that a sound is being made, using your ears. The word «hear» should not be confused with «listen to», which means » to hear and pay attention to». So, when you say «to hear but not listen» the inference is that you are aware of the sound/communication but are not prepared to consider what someone says and accept his/her advice and thereafter act upon it. In my opinion, there is no single word that encompasses both these actions.

However, the situation of hearing and not listening (= paying attention to the advice) can be explained idiomatically. Depending on the situation, here are a few options:

(1) turn a deaf ear (to something): It means «to be unwilling to listen to what someone is saying or asking»:
— The owner of the factory turned a deaf ear to the demands of the workers.

(2) won’t/wouldn’t hear of it: It is used to say that you refuse to agree with a suggestion or proposal:
— I said we should go back, but Lewis wouldn’t hear of it.

Some more words, phrases and idioms are:

Disregard, brush aside/away/off, pooh-pooh the advice/idea, look the other way, pay no heed to, laughed off, shut eyes to, pay no mind, sneeze at, pay no attention to, turn your nose up (at something)

Thank you for your response. It may not be obvious, but I wasn’t actually looking for idioms to act in place of a word that could be used to describe, or indeed encapsulate, the description.

While on the surface such a word may not appear in «regular» dictionaries, I am sure there could be a word yet. I am not prepared to jump straight to the conclusion formed by your opinion without having exhausted all possibilities. Nevertheless, your inputs enrich the question. Of that there is no doubt.

In the New Testament there is a word for hearing, but not listening. In Matthew 13:9 Jesus says, «…..Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand….» Jesus was referring to people who knew who Jesus was and the importance of his words, but who chose not to listen. They were not hearing some obscure foreign language and deciding it was above their heads and probably not relevant to them anyway. They were deliberately ignoring what was being said because they just didn’t want to be bothered. They could hear, but chose not to listen — to not pay attention.

Up until now, the point of focus was on the general lack of attention to what was being said.

Your reply throws another characteristic feature at the definition. The deliberate act of not paying attention.

I can’t find a word, either, though it does seem to need one. You might have to make one up, such as dis-hear. I heard once there was a guy in prison in England who contributed many words to one of the famous English dictionaries, I think the Oxford. I also heard, a long time ago, that if a word appeared in print three times, it was officially a «word.»

Anyway, good luck!

It depends upon which interpretation you mean.

Overlook — or ignore, neglect, disregard.

When my husband does it to me I call it selective hearing.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/thesaurus-category/american/to-ignore-something-or-to-not-pay-attention

Edit — Dragon, when we use «I hear you», we mean we understand and empathize, even sympathize. That is the opposite to your meaning. I will have to remember that on here!

The descriptions of the words in the link given by you, give a general sense. These do not, however, appear to be a close fit to the very act of hearing.

As for the «selective hearing» part, it is a deliberate act. What if, it wasn’t deliberate. What if, it was accidental, unintended if you will. What then?

Further, I am looking for a single word, even a loan word.

Didn’t Hilary Clinton coin a word when she said she ‘mis-spoke’? So we could ‘mis-hear’. Yes?

Again, one may be heedless or unmindful of ocular, haptic, or even olfactory stimuli. These are not specific to the context of aural perception.

Seems like the word was around since the 14th century
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misspeak

I think you came quite close to what I am searching for.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mishear

transitive verb: to hear wrongly

However, the person may have failed to hear correctly what was being said because of one or more factors, and not necessarily because he/she has been inattentive.

I day-dream while people speak, and when asked for a response have to admit I wasn’t listening.

I think of this as «dissening».

Do you speak in tongues, satadru?

I usually use the word «oblivious» in those kinds of situations e.g.

«I know you’ve already explained — but please could you do it again? I was oblivious the first time.»

«YOU talk to her! I talk to her morning, noon and night but she’s just oblivious to everything that comes out of my mouth, these days. At least she listens to you.»

I guess I missed it first time round! Really, I had never heard the word before and I thought it was an Americanism. Every day is a school day!

Could you expand on what you said? I could find no meaning for the word «dissening». Although, the word «diss» does make sense.

If that isn’t a rhetorical question, the answer to that would be: no, I do not speak in tongues.

Hi Ss. .

To hear and really pay attention is to hearken. Old-fashioned. (Hark, the herald angels sing.)

So if it has to be only one word, and has to be connected to the specific sense of hearing, and has to be negative, I guess the opposite would be to «unhearken».

Edited to add —

Or «Underhear»?

I am being facetious, but there are many reasons why we hear but don’t pay attention, and unless one knows the context, one cannot choose just one word.

The human brain filters out all kinds of extraneous noises constantly and for many reasons allows some but not others to reach the brain. We hear but don’t pay attention. For instance it would drive us crazy if we heard every sound in an airport. It is why people with hearing aids often leave a party — the aid picks up all the noises and it gets to the person after a while.

A sleeping mother will not hear a loud noise, but will hear every soft sound her newborn baby makes. She is attuned to the noises the baby makes.

When we hear or see and are not attentive or not attuned, we ignore or overlook the sense’s input. But those words do not meet your criterion of being specifically for the sense of hearing. They are what the brain does with the data gathered by all the senses. And there are positive words to hear and also listen but it is the negative that has no single word as a synonym.

That is why we have the word ‘not’, I guess.

Sadly there isn’t one.

My response was to clear any lingering doubts that one may harbor.

I’m of Franco-Germanic Anglo-Saxon ethnicity but the last 4 generations of my line have lived in Australia and New Zealand where I am classed as a European New Zealander.

We know that people speak languages using words that have meanings commonly agreed upon, but moving around the country as a child and changing schools I found words and catch phrases being used in ways I was unfamiliar with.

A new friend went to a shop and bought some sweets and then asked me if I wanted «some chores». I thought he was asking me if I wanted to help him do some odd jobs, but it transpired that «chaws» was a colloquialism derived from «chews» and that he was in fact asking me if I wanted some sweets.

Similarly «dissening» isn’t a word in the public vocabulary but one that comes to mind and rolls off the tongue when I am hearing but not listening, so dissening.

Hope —

You said: «When we hear or see and are not attentive or not attuned, we ignore or overlook the sense’s input.»

THAT’S the reason I use «oblivious» (above). (And I do use it. Frequently. Because I’m rather prone to drifting from what’s being said to something else entirely. My kind friends call it ‘being off with the fairies again.» My plainer-speaking friends call it other things). We register the fact that someone is speaking, but our brain overlooks what is actually being said in order to focus attention on something.

We’re aware that someone is speaking — we hear them. We just don’t decode what they are saying — we don’t listen. So we’re oblivious to what’s being said.

Thank you for sharing your childhood experience. But why did this word come to your mind at all? Was it, as if it were an antonym for «listening»? Did this word form, in your mind, from the Latin prefix «dis-«?

Romany,

To me, oblivious would mean that you don’t even hear them. (As when people in the supermarket or on the highway are oblivious that there might even be someone else in the aisles or on the road. One «runs into them» a lot, pun intended.) What you describe to me IMHO would be being distracted — thinking about something else instead of paying attention.

As I said before, hearing but not listening can occur for many reasons and motives and that is probably why we don’t have a word and must go with not paying attention. We may be doing it on purpose or it may be unintentional. Hence ignore or distractible. (Or other words mentioned.)

Most humans during a conversation are only «half-listening» to the speaker as they are thinking of what they themselves can respond instead of what the speaker is saying — what they are saying not only with their words but with body language.

I used «listening» exercises with my students to teach them how to actually listen. And people who learn to listen to others not only learn a lot, but are better liked. A basic human need is to be heard, which people who have learned the art of listening are providing to the speaker when they «listen with all their senses».

We have had other discussions on TFD where someone wants one word to suffice to explain a concept and we don’t have a single word in English. And often it is because we have a positive word but there is not a negative word — such as unlisten or under-listen or half-listen. And one cannot unhear something — once you’ve heard it, you’ve heard it.

Hi bosavi. Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the good idea (though I don’t think satandru sengupta still visits this forum).

The original question was looking for a verb — «to hear but not listen».

What do you think?
To inattend?
To unattend?
To disattend?

I think ‘inattend’ would be the most exact in meaning.