Skip to content
GREMockTests
GRE vocabulary

hearken

verbHigh-frequency wordMore H words

to listen carefully or pay close attention to something

Start a free GRE mock test 39 minutes · free · instant score
In a sentence

Hearken in a sentence

Here are example sentences showing hearken in a sentence.

The crowd hearkened to the elder's words with reverent silence.

The council urged the young king to hearken to the counsel of his more experienced ministers.

Synonyms
heedattendlisten
Antonyms

Quick GRE check

Question 1 of 3

3 questions, about 2 minutes. How would you do on the real test?

Verbal · Sentence Equivalence

The negotiator's reputation for blank served her well: rivals who tried to outwait her invariably found that she had already anticipated their stalling and arranged a fallback months in advance.

Select the two answers that give the sentence the same meaning. 0 of 2 selected.

Usage & nuance

Using “hearken” well

Hearken is an archaic or literary word meaning to listen attentively or heed. In the modern phrase hearken back, it instead means to recall or evoke an earlier time.

Common questions

Questions about “hearken”

Hearken (verb) means to listen carefully or pay close attention to something
Here is hearken used in an example sentence: "The crowd hearkened to the elder's words with reverent silence." Another example: "The council urged the young king to hearken to the counsel of his more experienced ministers."
Common synonyms for hearken include heed, attend, listen.
Antonyms of hearken include ignore, disregard, neglect.
Clusters with heed, attend, and listen, opposed by ignore, disregard, and neglect. Note the idiom hearken back, which shifts the meaning toward evoking the past.
Yes. Hearken is a high-frequency GRE word, so it is worth prioritising as you build your vocabulary.

See these words the way the GRE tests them.

Take the free 39-minute GRE Quick Mock Test and meet words like this inside real Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, with a worked solution for every answer.