learn

See also: Learn

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach"”), from Old English leornian (“to learn", rarely also, "to teach”), from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnōn, from Proto-Germanic *lizaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(le-)lóys-e, stative from the root *leys- (“track, furrow, trace, trail”).

Cognate with Old Frisian lernia, lerna (“to learn”), Middle Low German lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach”), Middle Dutch leernen (“to learn", also, "to teach”) (whence Dutch lernen (“to study scripture”)), German lernen (“to learn”). See also lore and lear.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lûn, IPA(key): /lɜːn/
  • (General American) enPR: lûrn, IPA(key): /lɝn/
  • Audio (UK); “to learn”:(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (dialectal) enPR: lä(r)n, IPA(key): /lɑː(ɹ)n/ (see larn)
  • (Early Modern) IPA(key): /lɛːrn/, /lɛrn/[1]
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

Verb

learn (third-person singular simple present learns, present participle learning, simple past and past participle learned or learnt)

  1. To acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something.
    It's time Dad learned (how) to change the oil in the car.
    In my latest job, I've learnt to keep my mouth shut more than in the last one.
    Toddlers learn to walk at around one year old.
    • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC:
      a school in which he learns sly circumvention
    • 1987 April 18, Tom Grabosky, “Gay Men's Voices Rise Up Singin'”, in Gay Community News, page 7:
      I was very impressed with the obvious amount of work that went into the learning and synchronization of such a complex and harmonically and difficult score.
    • 1988, Mark Andre Peter Loranc, “Acknowledgements”, in A Study of the Ionospheric Signature of Ion Supply from the Ionosphere to the Magnetosphere (PhD dissertation), University of Texas at Dallas, page iv:
      I have learned far more from them about how to be a scientist than they realize. Above all else, they taught me the virtues of proper waterfowl alignment.
    • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
      Every day I learn more about this great city.
    • 2019 December 15, Hugh Graham, Alice Hutton, “Milk or tea first? Charles's butlers have the answer”, in The Sunday Times, number 10,188, page 5:
      Other rules learnt by butlers include lighting candles 15 minutes before guests enter a room, and not saying "good morning" to guests until you are 5ft away.
  2. To attend a course or other educational activity.
  3. To gain knowledge from a bad experience so as to improve.
    learn from one's mistakes
  4. To study.
    I learn medicine.
    They learn psychology.
  5. To come to know; to become informed of; to find out.
    He just learned that he will be sacked.
  6. (now only in non-standard speech and dialects) To teach.
    Give him a clip round the ear. That'll learn him!
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter IX, in Le Morte Darthur, book VIII:
      And whan she had serched hym
      she fond in the bottome of his wound that therin was poyson
      And soo she heled hym […]
      and therfore Tramtrist cast grete loue to la beale Isoud
      for she was at that tyme the fairest mayde and lady of the worlde
      And there Tramtryst lerned her to harpe
      and she beganne to haue grete fantasye vnto hym
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], signature F3, verso:
      Sweete Prince, you learne me noble thankfulnes: […]
    • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 373, column 1:
      Haue I not bene
      Thy Pupill long? Haſt thou not learn'd me how
      To make Perfumes?
    • 1663 April 27 (Gregorian calendar), John Bunyan, “Touching Parents”, in Christian Behaviour; or The Fruits of True Christianity. […], London: […] F. Smith, […], →OCLC, page 56:
      […] Take heed of filling their [i.e., children's] heads with VVhimzies, and unprofitable Notions; for this vvill ſooner learn them to be malepert and proud, than ſober and humble.
    • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 200:
      But we’ll play Robin Hood—it’s noble fun. I’ll learn you.
    • 1993, The Simpsons, (18 Feb. 1993) Lisa's thoughts:
      That'll learn him to bust my tomater.

Usage notes

  • The sense of "teach", once considered standard, fell into disfavour in the 18th century and is today deprecated in usage guides.

Conjugation

Conjugation of learn
infinitive (to) learn
present tense past tense
1st-person singular learn learned
2nd-person singular learn, learnest† learned, learnedst†
3rd-person singular learns, learneth† learned
plural learn
subjunctive learn learned
imperative learn —
participles learning learned

† Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

learn (plural learns)

  1. The act of learning something.
    • 2003, Gregory A. Raymer, The Woodie Chronicles: My Journey Through America on the road t recovery in a 1949 Woodie Wagon:
      I did a quick learn of the place by watching the people shuffle in. There was a healthy mix of beautiful and freaky people, who shared a few common denominators […]

References

  1. ^ Dobson, E. J. (1957) English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 8, page 470: “Learn has ę̄ in Levins (beside ĕ), Hart (beside ĕ), Bullokar, and Cooper, and ĕ in Robinson, Gil, Hodges, Poole, Coles, Brown, and RS.”.

Anagrams

Bavarian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old High German lernēn, lirnēn, from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnēn. Compare German lernen, English learn, Dutch leren, Danish lære.

Verb

learn

  1. (Sappada, Sauris) to learn

References

Scots

Etymology

From Old English leornian.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lɛrn/

Verb

learn (third-person singular simple present learns, present participle learnin, simple past learnt, past participle learnt)

  1. To learn.
  2. To teach.
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