overhear
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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In towns near camps in western Massachusetts, it’s not uncommon to overhear conversations about prep school wait lists and tennis programs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
She told the BBC she would overhear Alphonsine helping her with her language skills.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2025
I regularly overhear other birders marveling over the flashy warblers in breeding plumage, while overlooking other comparatively less-flashy birds like vireos and sparrows.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2025
Sometimes because both my parents and Lucia’s parents have come during shooting to help because we have a new kid, sometimes they’ll overhear something and be like, “That’s funny.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2024
Her words are still too loud, and I worry that someone might overhear.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
It is she who ensures Heathcliff overhears Cathy as she laments how marrying him would degrade her, causing him to flee Wuthering Heights and leave Cathy to marry Edgar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
When he overhears Jonathan describing him as having, “too much money and no taste,” Ripley feels slighted, which is why he gets Jonathan involved in doing Reeves’ dirty work.
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2024
Another time she gets caught short when hill walking and with her trousers still around her ankles overhears one of her children tell a passer-by that "mummy is off having a wee".
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2024
All seems idyllic — until the day Beth, approaching her husband and brother-in-law in a store, overhears Don saying that he doesn’t like her new novel at all, but he can’t tell her.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2023
Then when he’s gone, Kelly overhears Mr. Rhydd telling Pete Redmarley's old biddy that Badger hadn't bought his usual cans of Pedigree Chum for three weeks.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
The actors speak quietly, as if fearful of being overheard, whether or not there is anyone around to hear, and often regard one another with pained or stunned expressions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
Mr. Wade calls this process of inheritance “catching,” the transmission of a tune without formal notation or instruction, overheard once and absorbed by musicians who may now be little remembered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
She only learned about the reintroduction plan after asking rangers about discussions she had overheard.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
This overheard comment, plus a confluence of socially embarrassing events at the Meryton ball later, push Mary to the point of breakdown.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
“I overheard some loggers in the booth behind me. They were talking about the old Skeleton Woman legend. Of course I’d heard that story when I was a kid.”
From "I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980" by Lauren Tarshis
You couldn't walk down the main street without spotting some of the courtroom's stars, or grab a coffee without overhearing chatter about the case.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
“After overhearing a passionate ideological dispute around her own kitchen table between the future Nobel laureate for literature and his radical friends from the University of Chicago, she muttered: ‘Smart, smart, smart.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
“Kids are often being exposed to these topics anyway, through their peers, the media and overhearing conversations,” said Wenner Moyer.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2024
But is there possibly anything more ferociously rock ’em-sock ’em than an author overhearing her husband say he doesn’t like her latest book?
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
Safe from my confused feelings about the Obscure Object; and safe, too, from the bits of conversation I’d been overhearing from my parents’ bedroom.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
