To hark means to listen carefully or pay close attention, especially to something important or distant. When someone says “Hark!” they're telling you to stop what you're doing and really listen.

You've probably heard this word in the Christmas carol: “Hark! The herald angels sing.” The carol is telling listeners to pay attention to the angels' message. In older times, people used hark the way we might say “Listen!” or “Pay attention!” today.

The word appears most often in older books, poems, and songs, though people still use it when they want to sound formal or are referring back to something said earlier. A speaker might say “hark back” when reminding an audience of an earlier point: “Let me hark back to what I mentioned at the beginning.”

While it sounds a bit old-fashioned now, it carries a sense of urgency or importance. Nobody says “hark” about ordinary sounds like a doorbell or a phone notification. When someone uses this word, they're signaling that what comes next truly matters and deserves your full attention.