: of, relating to, or experienced through hearing
auditory stimuli
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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.
Synonyms
Examples of auditory in a Sentence
Adjective
The patient has damage to the auditory nerve.
I have a bad auditory memory—unless I see a word in writing, and not just hear it, I forget it easily.
Recent Examples on the Web
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
wendy Wisner, Parents, 23 Oct. 2024
Next to the gallery, David Lampley sells vintage clothes at the Impossible Railroad Trading Post and serves as director of auditory and visual experiences for the hotel.
—Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for auditory 
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Noun
While scholars have lauded the visual qualities of the basilica style, few have explored the auditory.
—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
Adjective
Peppa Pig' Jenna Fletcher finds Peppa Pig intolerable from an auditory perspective.
—wendy Wisner, Parents, 23 Oct. 2024
Next to the gallery, David Lampley sells vintage clothes at the Impossible Railroad Trading Post and serves as director of auditory and visual experiences for the hotel.
—Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for auditory
Dictionary Entries Near auditory
Cite this Entry
“Auditory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/auditory. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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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