What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Tear vs Ear - What's the difference?

tear | ear |

As verbs the difference between tear and ear

is that tear is to rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate or tear can be to produce tears while ear is (label) refuse, deny; repel.

As a noun tear

is a hole or break caused by tearing or tear can be a drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.

tear

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Verb

  • To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.
  • To injure as if by pulling apart.
  • To cause to lose some kind of unity or coherence.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.}}
  • To make (an opening) with force or energy.
  • To remove by tearing.
  • To demolish
  • To become torn, especially accidentally.
  • To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
  • To smash or enter something with great force.
  • Synonyms
    * (break) rend, rip * (remove by tearing) rip out, tear off, tear out

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hole or break caused by tearing.
  • A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
    Derived terms
    * wear and tear

    Derived terms

    * tearsheet

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia tear) (en noun)
  • A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
  • * Dryden
  • Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears .
  • That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
  • * Milton
  • some melodious tear
    Derived terms
    {{der3 , crocodile tears , shed a tear , teardrop , tear duct , tearful , tear up , teary , two tears in a bucket }}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To produce tears.
  • Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.

    ear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
  • (countable) The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear , and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.}}
  • (countable, slang) A police informant.
  • * 1976 , Stirling Silliphant, Dean Riesner, Gail Morgan Hickman, .
  • No I'm not kidding, and if you don't give it to me I'll let it out that you’re an ear.
  • The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; the power of discriminating between different tones.
  • *
  • songsnot all ungrateful to thine ear
  • The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.
  • * (Francis Bacon)
  • Dionysiuswould give no ear to his suit.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears .
  • That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; a prominence or projection on an object, usually for support or attachment; a lug; a handle.
  • (architecture) An acroterium.
  • (architecture) A crossette.
  • Alternative forms
    * ere
    Derived terms
    * bend somebody's ear * between the ears * by ear * cauliflower ear * earache * earbud * ear canal * eardrum * earful * earhole * earlobe * earmark * earpiece * earphone * earprint * earring * ears are burning * earshot * earsore * ear to the ground * ear trumpet * earwax * external ear * have one's ears lowered * inner ear * little pitchers have big ears * make a silk purse of a sow's ear * middle ear * mind's ear * out on one's ear * outer ear * surfer’s ear * swimmer’s ear * (ear)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (humorous) To take in with the ears; to hear.
  • * Two Noble Kinsmen
  • I eared her language.

    See also

    * (wikipedia) * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . More at (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) The fruiting body of a grain plant.
  • He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.
    Synonyms
    * head * spike

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.
  • This corn ears well.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To plough.
  • * 1595 , William Shakespeare, Richard II :
  • That power I have, discharge; and let them go
    To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
    For I have none.