listener

noun

lis·​ten·​er ˈli-sᵊn-ər 

ˈlis-nər

plural listeners

: one who listens to someone or something

a radio program with many listeners

a friend who's a good listener [=who listens attentively and sympathetically]

Fanny, being always a very courteous listener, and often the only listener at hand, came in for the complaints and distresses of most of them.

—Jane Austen

The average concertgoer drifts in and out of the music, often losing the thread. The listener can't always hear the music in the music, and tends to notice only the most obvious (usually the loudest) events.

—David Schiff

Examples of listener in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But listeners often favor artists of their own gender. —Kristin Westcott Grant, Forbes.com, 28 May 2025

For the first time, recorded sound closely resembled what a live listener would hear. —Richard Gunderman, The Conversation, 28 May 2025

Radio listeners can listen in on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90). —Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 25 May 2025

Lamar has a way of drawing in the listener with an innate ability to map context to delivery; SZA does the same, only in a different musical space. —Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 25 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1572, in the meaning defined above