hard of hearing

adjective

: relating to or having partial hearing loss

people who are hard of hearing

the deaf and hard of hearing community

… the task force … will ask the Nebraska Department of Education to hire a national consulting firm with expertise in the area of deaf and hard of hearing education to analyze Nebraska's system.—

Margaret Reist

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web While this is partly an accessibility feature for people who are hard of hearing, Amazon is also responding to a widespread complaint among viewers. —

Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 20 Apr. 2023 Miles, who is hard of hearing, has gone viral on TikTok for interpreting other popular songs into ASL. —

CBS News, 13 Feb. 2023 But for thousands of Ukrainians who are deaf or hard of hearing, those danger signals just don't exist. —

Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2022 My husband is hard of hearing. —

Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 8 Nov. 2022 The Connections 2 Community Clubhouse in downtown San Diego is run by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and is exclusively for homeless people, and the DCS Clubhouse in National City is run by Deaf Community Services of San Diego for people who are dear or hard of hearing. —

Gary Warth, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Apr. 2022 Kate Brandt, a spokeswoman for Trinity Rep, said some of these changes include significant increases in the number of seats available at the lowest ticket price point and the number of open caption performances for audiences who are deaf or hard of hearing. —

BostonGlobe.com, 12 May 2021 People are allowed to take their masks off to eat or drink, to talk to someone who is hard of hearing, to exercise outdoors or at a distance of 6 feet from other people inside, while performing for an audience and in order to confirm their identity, among other exceptions. —

Sara Tabin, The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Apr. 2021 This wristband is to show festival staff that the patron plus one companion is eligible to enter the accessible viewing areas or the deaf and hard of hearing areas. —

Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 17 Feb. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hard of hearing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1564, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of hard of hearing was in 1564

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Hard of hearing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard%20of%20hearing. Accessed 9 Jun. 2023.

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