hörbaren

Hörbaren is the inflected form of the German adjective hörbar, meaning audible or hearable. It is used to describe sounds or signals that can be perceived by listening. In practice, hörbar denotes that something is capable of being heard, as opposed to being inaudible or unhörbar.

Grammatical note: hörbar forms different endings depending on case, number, and article. Hörbaren appears most commonly as an attributive form before a plural noun in contexts with a definite article or other determiner, for example die hörbaren Signale or die hörbaren Geräusche. In singular neuter or feminine contexts, other endings are used, such as ein hörbares Geräusch or das hörbare Signal. The comparative and superlative of hörbar are hörbarer and am hörbarsten, respectively. The antonym is unhörbar or nicht hörbar.

Usage and domains: The term is widely used in acoustics, linguistics, media, and accessibility discussions to characterize sounds that are perceptible to human listeners. It can describe natural sounds, transmitted signals, or differences in acoustic quality that are detectable by listening. In technical writing, hörbar is often paired with measurements of sound pressure levels or frequency ranges to indicate audible thresholds for humans.

Related terms: hörbar vs. unhörbar, Hörschwelle (hearing threshold), Gehör (hearing), Schall (sound), and related descriptors for perceptible phenomena. The concept underpins discussions of audio design, speech intelligibility, and accessibility in media.

See also: Hörbarkeit, Hörgerät (hearing aid), Hearables (in German usage as borrowed terms for wearable audio devices).