Loud mp3 players – some notes on the vocabulary related to hearing

Hearing is one of the five senses, together with sight, touch, smell and feel.A hearing also means the opportunity to state one’s case in some official matter – for instance if someone has some state benefit stopped, or permission to remain in the UK had been refused, appeals about this (s) might go to a ‘hearing – i.e. (s)he would put his / her case and his / her details would be noted by someone in authority. In law a hearing is the act of listening to evidence, especially in court before a judge
aloud / out loud is often used as the opposite of silently, in silence. Children often read out loud or aloud in class or at home.
Hear! Hear! indicates wholehearted agreement with something someone has said; it means ‘I agree’
to be hearing-impaired. We often use the word ‘impaired‘ for conditions – eg sight-impaired / visually-impaired / speech-impaired. Avoiding the words ‘deaf’ ‘blind’ etc is not simply a question of political correctness – it recognises the fact that people can have problems with hearing, but not actually be deaf / blind. To be registered ‘blind’ in the UK impairment must be below 30% – but individuals can still see certain things with a 30% sight impairment.
If someone will not hear of sth it means he will not tolerate sth, or accept sth
Eg She wouldn’t hear of my paying the hotel bill = she refused to allow me to pay the hotel bill …….
"He said he’d pay for her coat to be dry-cleaned, but she wouldn’t hear of it." i.e. there was no question of her accepting his paying for it.
deaf – pronounced ‘deff‘ – having impaired or no hearing
to hear from someone – to have a ‘phone call, an email or a letter from someone
Eg "I’ve just heard from Sue" = I’ve just had a letter, message or phone call from Sue.
To hear someone out – to listen to everything someone wants to say
To deafen – to drown out the sound of sth else; to cause to become deaf
To drown out – to be so loud you cannot hear another sound or noise
eg The band drowned out our conversation. or The band drowned our conversation out.
A pun is a play on different meanings of a word, or the fact that there are words which sound the same but have different meanings.