English Reference
Idiom idiom

hear voices


Have the experience of hearing voices which are not audible to others; to experience auditory hallucinations.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.


SIMPLE

The patient tells the doctor that he hears voices.

CONTEXTUAL

She felt frightened when she started to hear voices that no one else could notice.

COMPLEX

The protagonist struggled to maintain his composure as he began to hear voices, a symptom that signaled his descent into a state of profound psychological distress.


Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    find one's voice

    To become willing or able to talk or otherwise express one's opinions.

  2. 02

    good voice to beg bacon

    An unpleasant-sounding voice.

  3. 03

    hear out

    To listen to someone until that person has finished speaking; to thoroughly consider all aspects of someone's argument.

  4. 04

    hear the end of it

    To cease to be told about, or nagged because of, something.

  5. 05

    hear the grass grow

    To have an extremely sensitive sense of hearing.

  6. 06

    hear things

    To imagine that one hears sounds that are not actually real; to have auditory hallucinations.

  7. 07

    hear through the grapevine

    To hear rumors; to learn through hearsay.

  8. 08

    I can't hear you over the sound of

    Said to dismiss what the interlocutor is saying.

Last updated August 10, 2026