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Glite Dictionary
to hear things

to hear things

5 8.8
To notice sounds or voices that are not there
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : oír cosas
  • - So I'm hearing things now?
  • see and hear things
  • hear things I never
  • just hear things

Examples

  • At forty feet, they can feel the harsh heat and hear things fizzing, popping, and being consumed.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • I hear things about it that make me jumpy.

    Bird (1988)

  • Sure sign of old age, when you start hearing things.

    The Man from Snowy River (1982)

  • Maybe he was just hearing things?

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Or you heard things wrong.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Must be hearing things.

    Shorts (2009)

  • I hear things.

    L.A. Confidential (1997)

  • I'm hearing things.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • When I read your post, it sounds to me a little hyper-religious, a bit delusional, and suggests that maybe you are hearing things with your "third eye" that are not present to the rest of us, so naturally some would think you are having hallucinations.

    Blog text (12)

  • Sometimes I wonder if I'm just hearing things when I listen to the whispers in the dark.

Synonyms

to hallucinate
vsto hear things
75 7.4

To see or hear things that are not there

applies only to imagined auditory experiences rather than any sensory perception
to hear voices
vsto hear things
  • Specialized
40 8.4

To hear people talking when no one is there

covers any imagined sound or noise, not only spoken ones

Antonyms

silence
660 2.0

A period with no sound or speech

How Real

to hear voices
  • Specialized
40 8.4
to hear things
5 8.8
to imagine
∞ 1.3

Surface Forms

hear things infinitive
hearing things present participle
hears things third person singular
heard things past
heard things past participle

Morphology

hear + thing

The combination of 'hear' (perceive sounds) and 'things' (unspecified items) gives a straightforward sense of perceiving sounds, so learners can partly infer that it means hearing unspecified sounds. However, the specific implication of hallucinated or imagined voices/sounds that 'aren't there' is a pragmatic, somewhat idiomatic extension not fully predictable from the parts alone, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrase hear things comes from the image of someone alone in a quiet place who thinks they can hear strange things like footsteps or voices that are not really there. That's why today it means 'to hear sounds or voices that are not there'.