The kanji 聴 essentially means "to listen," "to hear," or "to be attentive." It emphasizes the act of using one's ears to perceive sounds and the associated cognitive process of understanding and paying attention to what is being heard. It goes beyond the simple physical act of hearing to include the mental act of listening and comprehending.

・On-yomi (音読み): チョウ (chou) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): き（く） (ki(ku))

⚫︎ 聴解 (choukai) Translation: Listening comprehension ⚫︎ 聴衆 (choushuu) Translation: Audience; listeners ⚫︎ 傾聴 (keichou) Translation: Careful listening; attentive listening

The kanji 聴 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). ⚫︎ The semantic component is 耳 (みみ, mimi), meaning "ear," indicating the connection to the sense of hearing. ⚫︎ The phonetic component is 斤 (きん, kin), representing the sound and providing a phonetic clue to the pronunciation. The entire character visually represents the act of using one's ears 耳 to listen 斤.