ear
/ɪə(r)/ (bre, ipa) · /ɪr/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈir/ (ame, mw)
ear — noun
- earsingular
- earsplural
1. The ear is one of the two body parts located on opposite sides of your head that
The ear is one of the two body parts located on opposite sides of your head that let you hear sounds. It can mean the visible outer flap of cartilage or the whole hearing system inside the skull.
Rachid's ears felt warm again after he pulled on a thick hat.
possessive + ear(s) for body part
The doctor used a small light to look inside Nora's ear.
medical: look inside someone's ear
Rabbits have long ears that help them listen for danger.
The loud noise hurt Christopher's ears, so he covered them with his hands.
Linh gently cleaned behind her dog's ears with a soft damp cloth.
文法句型
possessive + ear(s)
adjective + ear(s)
ear + noun (ear infection, ear pain)
用法筆記
Countable noun. Use the plural 'ears' when referring to both organs. The outer, visible part is often called the 'ear' in everyday speech, while 'inner ear' and 'middle ear' are medical terms for the parts inside the head.
常見錯誤
2. The seed-bearing tip of cereal grasses, including wheat, corn, and barley, where
The seed-bearing tip of cereal grasses, including wheat, corn, and barley, where the grains grow tightly packed at the top of the stalk. Farmers harvest these ears once the seeds are ripe and ready for use as food.
The farmer walked through the field and checked each ear of wheat.
ear of + grain type
Each ear of corn held rows of golden kernels ready for harvest.
By late summer the ears of barley had turned a deep golden brown.
Birds landed on the tall grass and pecked at the ripe ears of grain.
Eitan examined the ears of rice to check if they were ready to cut.
文法句型
ear of + grain type (ear of wheat, ear of corn)
用法筆記
The phrase 'ear of corn' is common in American English and refers to the whole cob with its kernels. In British English, 'corn cob' or 'maize cob' is more frequent for the same thing. Context from farming, plants, or cooking makes this sense clear and avoids confusion with the body part meaning.
3. A natural ability to notice, understand, or copy sounds correctly — especially m
A natural ability to notice, understand, or copy sounds correctly — especially musical notes, rhythm, or the sounds of a foreign language.
Luca's ear for melody helps him notice every wrong note his band plays.
possessive + ear for + domain (melody)
Eliska has a great ear for accents and can imitate Irish or French speech.
Playing the violin well requires a fine ear for pitch and tone.
Kevin has no ear for rhythm at all, so dancing is hard for him.
When Keiko arrived in Boston, her ear for English helped her follow fast conversations in the campus cafeteria.
- musical ear
Slightly redundant but common; more specific to music than language
- pitch perception
More technical; used in music education contexts
- aural sensitivity
Formal register; rare in everyday speech
- tone deafness
The inability to distinguish between different musical pitches
文法句型
have a(n) adjective + ear for + noun
an ear for + music/language/accents
用法筆記
Always used with a determiner and usually an adjective: 'a good ear', 'a fine ear', 'a sharp ear'. The preposition 'for' introduces the domain (music, languages, accents). This sense is almost never used in the plural — 'ears' in this meaning would be incorrect.
常見錯誤
ear — verb
- earpresent simple I / you / we / they
- ears3rd person singular
- earing-ing form
- earedpast simple
1. When a grain plant such as wheat, corn, or barley produces its seed-bearing head
When a grain plant such as wheat, corn, or barley produces its seed-bearing head at the top of the stalk. This happens naturally as part of the plant's growth cycle.
The wheat began to ear after the first warm spring rain.
begin to ear: start of the growth stage
This type of corn ears much earlier than older varieties did.
By mid-June the barley had already eared, producing thick seed-heads at the top of each stalk.
If the weather stays warm the rice plants will ear within two weeks.
- head
'The wheat is heading' is a common alternative in farming speech
- come into ear
A slightly longer phrasal alternative: 'The corn came into ear in early August'
文法句型
ear (no object)
begin to ear
用法筆記
This is a specialised agricultural term. It is almost never used outside farming or gardening contexts. The past tense is 'eared'. Learners at intermediate levels rarely need to produce this word but may encounter it in reading about farming.