Noun

(legal) In civil law, a case where two or more people disagree and one or more of the parties take the case to a court for resolution.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits .}}

Noun

(uncountable) The sense used to perceive sound.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.}}

(countable) The act by which something is heard.

* 2004 , Timothy D. J. Chappell, Reading Plato's Theaetetus (page 73)

To such perceivings we give names like these: seeings, hearings , smellings, chillings and burnings, pleasures and pains, desires

(uncountable) A proceeding at which discussions are heard.

(countable, legal) A legal procedure done before a judge, without a jury, as with an evidentiary hearing.

* {{quote-news, date=21 August 2012, first=Ed, last=Pilkington, newspaper=The Guardian

, title= Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die? , passage=Next month, Clemons will be brought before a court presided over by a "special master", who will review the case one last time. The hearing will be unprecedented in its remit, but at its core will be a simple issue: should Reggie Clemons live or die?}}