: the process of hearing, recognizing, and interpreting spoken language
Word History
Etymology
aud- (in auditory entry 2) + -ing entry 1
Note: The term was introduced by the California educator Don Brown; its first use by Brown in a publication was perhaps in "Teaching Aural English," English Journal, vol. 43 (September, 1950), pp. 128-36, though it was reported earlier from an unpublished manuscript (see H.A. Anderson, "Educational News and Editorial Comment," The School Review, vol 57, no. 2 [February, 1949], p. 66). Brown's intention was apparently to have a word that bore the same relation to hearing and listening as reading does to seeing and looking.