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learn

Pronunciation: /ləːn/
Translate learn | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of learn

verb (past and past participle learned /ləːnt, ləːnd/ or chiefly British learnt /ləːnt/)

[with object]
  • 1gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in (something) by study, experience, or being taught:they’d started learning French [with infinitive]:she is learning to play the piano [no object]:we learn from experience
  • commit to memory:I’d learned too many grim poems in school
  • become aware of (something) by information or from observation: [with clause]:I learned that they had eaten already [no object]:the trading standards office learned of the illegal network
  • 2 archaic or informal teach (someone):‘That’ll learn you,’ he chuckled [with object and infinitive]:we’ll have to learn you to milk cows

Derivatives

learnability

Pronunciation: /-nəˈbɪlɪti/
noun

learnable

adjective

Origin:

Old English leornian 'learn' (in Middle English also 'teach'), of West Germanic origin; related to German lernen, also to lore1

In modern standard English it is wrong to use learn to mean teach, as in that’ll learn you (correct use is that’ll teach you). This meaning has been recorded since the 13th century and has been used by writers such as Spenser, Bunyan, and Samuel Johnson, but it fell into disfavour in the early 19th century and is now found only in non-standard and dialect use.

learn in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of learn in the US English dictionary
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