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Auditory is close in meaning to acoustic and acoustical, but auditory usually refers more to hearing than to sound. For instance, many dogs have great auditory (not acoustic) powers, and the auditory nerve lets us hear by connecting the inner ear to the brain. Acoustic and acoustical instead refer especially to instruments and the conditions under which sound can be heard; so architects concern themselves with the acoustic properties of an auditorium, and instrument makers with those of a clarinet or piano.
Examples of auditory in a Sentence
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While scholars have lauded the visual qualities of the basilica style, few have explored the auditory.
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Lynn Whidden, Scientific American, 26 July 2024
Visual albums, installation art, video games, and TikToks routinely blend the auditory, the visual, the narrative, and the poetic—sometimes spectacularly, quite often unsatisfyingly.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2024
Senate seat, also compared him to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who had a stroke and faced auditory processing problems as a result.
—Barnini Chakraborty, Washington Examiner, 30 Jan. 2023
But as the auditory confusion clears, moments where cross-purposes align have the power of the Ghostbusters crossing their streams.
—Chris Kelly, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2023
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Lynn Whidden, Scientific American, 26 July 2024
Visual albums, installation art, video games, and TikToks routinely blend the auditory, the visual, the narrative, and the poetic—sometimes spectacularly, quite often unsatisfyingly.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2024
Senate seat, also compared him to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who had a stroke and faced auditory processing problems as a result.
—Barnini Chakraborty, Washington Examiner, 30 Jan. 2023
But as the auditory confusion clears, moments where cross-purposes align have the power of the Ghostbusters crossing their streams.
—Chris Kelly, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2023
See All Example Sentences for auditory
Cite this Entry
“Auditory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/auditory. Accessed 10 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
auditory
1 of 2 adjective
au·di·to·ry
ˈȯd-ə-ˌtōr-ē, -ˌtȯr- 
1
: of or relating to hearing
2
: attained, experienced, or produced through or as if through hearing
auditory images
auditory hallucinations
3
: marked by great susceptibility to impressions and reactions produced by acoustic stimuli
an auditory individual
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