ear

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Anatomy The vertebrate organ of hearing, responsible for maintaining equilibrium as well as sensing sound and divided in mammals into the external ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.
2. n. Anatomy The part of this organ that is externally visible.
3. n. An invertebrate organ analogous to the mammalian ear.
4. n. The sense of hearing: a sound that grates on the ear.
5. n. Sensitivity or receptiveness to sound, especially:
6. n. Sharpness or refinement of hearing: a singer with a good ear for harmony.
7. n. The ability to play a passage of music solely from hearing it: plays the piano by ear.
8. n. Responsiveness to the sounds or forms of spoken language: a writer with a good ear for dialogue; has an ear for foreign languages.
9. n. Sympathetic or favorable attention: "[The President] wavers between the two positions, depending on who last had his ear” ( Joseph C. Harsch).
10. n. Something resembling the external ear in position or shape, especially:
11. n. A flexible tuft of feathers located above the eyes of certain birds, such as owls, that functions in visual communication but not in hearing. Also called ear tuft.
12. n. A projecting handle, as on a vase or pitcher.
13. n. A small box in the upper corner of the page in a newspaper or periodical that contains a printed notice, such as promotional material or weather information.
14. n. Informal Headphones.
15. idiom. all ears Acutely attentive: Tell your story-we're all ears!
16. idiom. coming out of (one's) ears In more than adequate amounts; overabundant.
17. idiom. give To pay close attention; listen attentively.
18. idiom. have To be on the watch for new trends or information.
19. idiom. in one ear and out the other Without any influence or effect; unheeded: His mind was made up, so my arguments went in one ear and out the other.
20. idiom. its In a state of amazement, excitement, or uproar: a controversial movie that set the film industry on its ear.
21. idiom. play it by ear To act according to the circumstances; improvise: "He plays his negotiations by ear, going into them with no clear or fixed plan” ( George F. Kennan).
22. idiom. up to (one's) ears Deeply involved or occupied fully: I'm up to my ears in work.
23. n. The seed-bearing spike of a cereal plant, such as corn.
24. v. To form or grow ears.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The organ of hearing; the apparatus of audition; the acoustic sense-organ; any mechanism by which an animal receives the impact of sound-waves and perceives them as sound. In man and mammals generally the ear consists of an external ear, which comprises the more or less funnel-shaped pinna and the external auditory meatus; of a middle ear, ear-drum, or tympanum, closed from the external auditory meatus by the tympanic membrane, traversed by a chain of small boues, the auditory ossicles, named malleus, incus, and stapes, and communicating with the pharynx by the Eustachian tube; and of an internal ear, or labyrinth, the essential organ of hearing, containing the end-organs of the auditory nerve. The labyrinth consists of a complicated closed sac, the membranous labyrinth, lined with epithelium and lying in a roughly corresponding excavation in the petrous bone, the bony labyrinth. The membranous labyrinth contains a limpid fluid, the endolymph, and between the membranous labyrinth and the bony labyrinth is a similar liquid called perilymph. The auditory nerve, penetrating the bone by the internal auditory meatus, is distributed to the walls of the membranous labyrinth. The labyrinth is completely shut off from the tympanum, but there are two fenestræ or openings, closed by membranes, in the tympanic wall of the bony labyrinth, and the foot of the stapes is applied to one of them. Sound-waves which impinge upon the tympanic membrane are transmitted across the tympanum by the chain of auditory ossicles, and thence into the labyrinth. In vertebrates below mammals the ear at once becomes simplified, as by lack of an external ear and reduction of the ossicles and of the labyrinth, the latter being simply ligulate or strapshaped; and, as in fishes, the inner ear may contain one or more concretions, sometimes of great size, called otoliths or ear-stones. An ear of some kind is recognizable in the great majority of invertebrates. In its simplest recognizable expression it is a mere capsule or vesicle, containing some hard body answering to an otolith, and so supposed to have an auditory function. See cochlea, labyrinth, and cut under tympanic.
2. n. The external ear alone, known as the pinna, auricle, or concha: as, the horse laid his ears back.
3. n. In ornithology: The auriculars or packet of auricular feathers which cover the external ear-passage of a bird.
4. n. A plumicorn or corniplume; one of the “horns” of an owl.
5. n. The sense of hearing; the power of distinguishing sounds; the power of nice perception of the differences of sound.
6. n. Specifically, in music, the capacity to appreciate, analyze, and reproduce musical compositions by hearing them; sensitiveness to musical intonation and to differences of pitch and quality in musical sounds: as, a correct ear. Sometimes called a musical ear.
7. n. A careful or favorable hearing; attention; heed.
8. n. Disposition to listen; judgment; taste.
9. n. A part of any inanimate object having some likeness to the external ear. A projection from the side of a vessel or utensil made to be used as a handle: as, the ears of a jar, pitcher, or other vessel.
10. n. In architecture, same as crosset, 1 .
11. n. An aural instrument for the use of very deaf persons. It has a large pavilion secured by a swivel to a stand upon the floor, and an elastic tube with a nozle to be held to the ear.
12. To listen to; hear with attention.
13. n. A spike or head of corn or grain; that part of a cereal plant which contains the flowers and seed.
14. To shoot, as an ear; form ears, as corn.
15. To cultivate with a plow; plow; till.
16. Early.
17. n. A kidney.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
2. n. countable The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.
3. n. countable, slang A police informant.
4. n. countable The fruiting body of a grain plant.
5. v. archaic To plough.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The organ of hearing; the external ear.
2. n. The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; the power of discriminating between different tones; ; -- in the singular only.
3. n. That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; any prominence or projection on an object, -- usually one for support or attachment; a lug; a handle. The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow. See Illust. of Bell.
4. n. Same as Acroterium.
5. n. Same as Crossette.
6. n. Privilege of being kindly heard; favor; attention.
7. v. Sportive To take in with the ears; to hear.
8. n. The spike or head of any cereal (as, wheat, rye, barley, Indian corn, etc.), containing the kernels.
9. v. To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain.
10. v. To plow or till; to cultivate.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. attention to what is said
2. n. the externally visible cartilaginous structure of the external ear
3. n. fruiting spike of a cereal plant especially corn
4. n. good hearing
5. n. the sense organ for hearing and equilibrium