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Listen vs Monitor - What's the difference?

listen | monitor | Synonyms |

As verbs the difference between listen and monitor

is that listen is to pay attention to a sound or speech while monitor is to watch over; to guard.

As a noun monitor is

someone who watches over something; a person in charge of something or someone.

As a proper noun Monitor is

any of several publications e.g. the "Christian Science Monitor".

listen

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (lb) To pay attention to a sound or speech.
  • :
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.}}
  • (lb) To expect or wait for a sound, such as a signal.
  • :
  • *
  • *:It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
  • *
  • *:He reined Wrangle to a walk, halted now and then to listen , and then proceeded cautiously with shifting and alert gaze.
  • (lb) To accept advice or obey instruction; to agree or assent.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest.
  • To hear (something or someone), to pay attention to.
  • *1485 , Sir (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book XX:
  • *:‘But, sir, lyars ye have lystened , and that hath caused grete debate betwyxte you and me.’
  • *1592 , (William Shakespeare), : v 3
  • *:Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say.
  • Usage notes

    In English, listen'' and ''hear'' are two primary verbs relating to audial perception. To (hear) represents automatic, unconscious, or passive perception of sound, while ''listen generally represents intentional, conscious, or purposeful use of the sense of hearing. The difference is expressed in the following quotation: : As the silence took hold in the darkness, Sam realized that she had been hearing', though not '''listening to, various low-level sounds—the hum of air conditioning and life support, the pulse of some faraway oxygen pump, the faint buzz of the electrical and lighting systems. —Justin Richards (1999) ''Demontage , chapter 5, page 92. A similar distinction exists between see'' and ''watch in English.

    Synonyms

    * (to pay attention) attend, behear, give ear, hark, hear, heed, list, mind, note, pay attention * (to expect or wait for a sound) await, anticipate, expect, wait for * (to accept advice or instruction) agree, assent, mind, obey * (to hear) hear, mind, heed * See also

    Antonyms

    * (to pay attention) ignore * (to accept advice or instruction) disobey, disregard

    Coordinate terms

    * speak * talk

    Derived terms

    * listenability * listenable * listener * listenership * listening * listen in * listen up * listening post * listening station * relisten * unlistenable

    See also

    * hear

    monitor

    English

    Alternative forms

    * monitour (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who watches over something; a person in charge of something or someone.
  • The camp monitors look after the children during the night, when the teachers are asleep.
  • * 1829 , Charles Sprague,
  • And oft, mild friend, to me thou art
    A monitor , though still;
    Thou speak'st a lesson to my heart,
    Beyond the preacher's skill.
  • A device that detects and informs on the presence, quantity, etc., of something.
  • (computing) A device similar to a television set used as to give a graphical display of the output from a computer.
  • The information flashed up on the monitor .
  • (computing) A program for viewing and editing.
  • a machine code monitor
  • (British) A student leader in a class.
  • * 1871 , ,
  • So, as she did not like the masters to be prying about the play-ground out of school, she chose from among the biggest and most trustworthy of her pupils five monitors , who had authority over the rest of the Boys, and kept the unruly ones in order.
  • * 1881 , , Chapter X,
  • But it was not so—at least, not always—for though they fell out among themselves, they united their forces against the common enemy—the monitors !
  • (nautical) One of a class of relatively small armored warships designed for shore bombardment or riverine warfare rather than combat with other ships.
  • (archaic) An ironclad.
  • A monitor lizard.
  • (obsolete) One who admonishes; one who warns of faults, informs of duty, or gives advice and instruction by way of reproof or caution.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • You need not be a monitor to the king.
  • (engineering) A tool holder, as for a lathe, shaped like a low turret, and capable of being revolved on a vertical pivot so as to bring the several tools successively into position.
  • Derived terms

    * hall monitor * hallway monitor * monitor lizard * water monitor

    See also

    * display * screen * VDU

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To watch over; to guard.
  • * 1993 , H. Srinivasan, Prevention of Disabilities in Patients with Leprosy: A Practical Guide , World Health Organization, page 134,
  • Monitoring refers to keeping a watch over patients to ensure that they are practising what they have learnt about disability prevention correctly.
  • * 1997 , Bekir Onursal, Surhid P. Gautam, Vehicular Air Pollution: Experiences from Seven Latin American Urban Centers , Volumes 23-373, page 239,
  • During July 1989-February 1990 ambient SO2, was monitored using a mobile station in the residential-commercial neighborhood of Copacabana.
  • * 2002', Mark Baker, Garry Smith, ''GridRM: A Resource '''Monitoring Architecture for the Grid'', in Manish Parashar (editor), ''Grid Computing - GRID 2002: Third International Workshop , Springer, LNCS 2536, page 268,
  • A wide-area distributed system such as a Grid requires that a broad range of data be monitored' and collected for a variety of tasks such as fault detection and performance ' monitoring , analysis, prediction and tuning.

    Synonyms

    * oversee, supervise, track

    Anagrams

    * ----