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Definition of "overhear" []

  • To hear (speech or someone speaking) without the speaker's awareness or intent. (verb-transitive)
  • To hear something without the speaker's awareness or intent. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "overhear" in a sentence
  • "How charmed I am when I overhear a German word which"
  • "All i overhear is ‘now stop swearing’, ‘theres no need to shout abuse down the phone’, ‘if you continue to scream obscenities I will terminate the call’ … etc etc.."
  • "If the Scripps Spelling Bee had been a Mark Burnett-style production, we'd have been treated to behind-the-scenes footage of players forming alliances, strategizing to trip up the frontrunners; Isabel Jacobson, the last female speller standing (you go, girl!), pitting the boys against each other by stage-whispering invitations to clandestine trysts; We'd "overhear" overstressed kids being browbeaten by parents who'd caught them peaking at comic books rather than practicing Croatian conjugation."