hark
hark Lexical Profile
hark Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To recall, return to, or evoke an earlier period, style, or topic (usually used with 'back').
"The architect's new civic center harks back to the neoclassical designs of the nineteenth century."
To listen attentively or give heed to a sound or speaker (chiefly archaic or literary).
"The travelers paused on the ridge to hark to the distant chiming of the abbey bells."
• interjection
An exclamation used to command someone to listen closely or pay immediate attention to a sound or announcement.
"Hark! Does that sound like the train arriving in the distance?"
Word Nuance & Usage
In contemporary English, the standalone imperative 'hark' is largely literary or archaic; the word survives primarily in the phrasal verb 'hark back' (meaning to recall or originate in the past), which is sometimes mistakenly spelled 'hearken back' or 'harken back'.
• Rhymes for hark
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English herken, ultimately from a West Germanic root related to Old English hieran ('to hear') and the extended form hearken.