mind's ear

English

WOTD – 14 November 2024

Etymology

From mind (noun) +‎ -’s (possessive marker) +‎ ear, probably modelled after mind’s eye.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /maɪndz‿ˈɪə/
(General American) IPA^(key): /maɪndz‿ˈɪəɹ/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Audio (General American): (file)
Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Noun

mind 's ear (plural mind's ears or minds' ears or (less common) minds' ear)

(idiomatic) The mental faculty or inner sense with which one produces or reproduces imagined or recalled sounds solely within the mind; the supposed organ within the mind which experiences such sounds.
Synonym: inner ear

Coordinate term: mind's eye
- 1732 (date written), Peter Drake [pseudonym; Matthew Green], The Grotto, a Poem. […], London: [s.n.], published 1733, →OCLC, page 5:
  The thinking Sculpture helps to raiſe / Deep thoughts, the Genii of the place: / To the minds ear, and invvard ſight, / There ſilence ſpeaks, and ſhade gives light: […]
- 1778 February 28 (date written), James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], published 1791, →OCLC, page 185:
  But, enough of this ſubject; for your angry voice at Aſhbourne upon it, ſtill ſounds avveful 'in my mind's ears.'
- 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Coriolanus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:
  "I must read Shakspeare [i.e., William Shakespeare]?" / "You must have his spirit before you; you must hear his voice with your mind's ear; you must take some of his soul into yours."
- [1850], T[homas] Major Lester, “Morning”, in Prayers and Hymns for the Use of Sunday Schools, London: Wertheim, Macintosh, & Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 3:
  [K]eep our thoughts from wandering, open our minds' ears to hear, open our mouths to sing thy praises, let us not trifle in thy house, but ever remember "thou God seest me."
- 1850 March, “My Aunt Nelly’s Portfolio”, in The Churchman’s Companion, volume VII, part XXXIX, London: Joseph Masters, […], →OCLC:
  Even now I have in my mind's ears the merry gibe of some young rogue of a reader, […]
- 1916, Booth Tarkington, “Yearnings”, in Penrod and Sam, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 293:
  The likeness of the great bass horn remained upon the retina of his mind's eye, losing nothing of its brazen enormity with the passing of hours, nor abating, in his mind's ear, one whit of its fascinating blatancy.
- 1993, Diane Kelsey McColley, “The Arts of Eden”, in A Gust for Paradise: Milton’s Eden and the Visual Arts, Urbana; Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 142:
  Perhaps we may hear in our minds' ears echoes of the sacred duets of Orlando di Lasso, [Claudio] Monteverdi, [Edward] Gibbons, and [William] Lawes, sung in exquisitely responsive improvised harmony to words immediately inspired in them both.
- 1994, Thomas Levenson, “A Perfect Order”, in Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, part 1 (By Design), page 20:
  There is harmony in the scene; harmony between heaven and earth; harmony in the sounds that the artist allows us to hear within our minds' ear, issuing from the double rank of pipes, sounding to an angel's touch.
- 2002 January 27, Terry Teachout, “A master and mentor in song”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-01-07:
  Other people do "Don't Smoke in Bed" and "I've Got Your Number" and "You Came a Long Way From St. Louis," but when I hear them in my mind's ear, hers [Peggy Lee's] is the voice I hear.
- 2007, Philip Pullman, “The Writing of Stories: Making It Up and Writing It Down”, in Simon Mason, editor, Dæmon Voices: Essays on Storytelling, Oxford, Oxfordshire: David Fickling Books, →ISBN, page 42:
  I used to be a schoolteacher, teaching children roughly between the ages of ten and thirteen, and I noticed that when they wrote stories, many of them were much better at dialogue than at narrative. […] What they could do very well was put down the things they were hearing in their minds' ear, because those things already had words.
- 2009, David Berger, “The Beautiful and the Agreeable”, in Kant’s Aesthetic Theory: The Beautiful and Agreeable (Continuum Studies in Philosophy), London: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 63:
  What's more, it is to assume that we are not, in general, capable of telling whether we are actually looking at a painting or merely imagining one, or actually hearing a string quartet as opposed to listening to our own mind's ears.
- 2017, Harry George Pellegrin, Classic Guitar Method, 5th edition, Scotia, N.Y.: PAB Entertainment Group, →ISBN, page 264:
  Examine as many transcriptions as you can find and compare them to the original Gesellschaft score—you will see the vast range of harmonies transcribers have heard in their minds' ear over the years!
- 2023, Pedro de Alcantara, “Sonic Play”, in Creative Health for Pianists: Concepts, Exercises & Compositions, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 274:
  "Albers" is musically ambiguous. In its basic form, it isn't unequivocally in C major, but in our minds' ears we tend to make it be in C major.

Usage notes

The plural form mind’s ears is used when referring to an individual person, and minds’ ear (less common) or minds’ ears when referring to several people.

Translations

mental faculty or inner sense with which one produces or reproduces imagined or recalled sounds solely within the mind

Finnish: mieli (fi) (mind; used in simlar expressions)
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

Amerinds, dimerans, drimanes, sirnamed