Hearing and hearing aid glossary

Glossary

Every term on this site, defined once

Audiology has a lot of abbreviations and a few words that mean something different from everyday use. This page defines the ones you will meet across our education pages, in plain language and in alphabetical order.

A to Z

Audiogram

The chart your hearing test results are plotted on. Pitch runs left to right, loudness top to bottom. Each mark shows the quietest sound you responded to at that pitch.

A clinician who assesses hearing and balance and works with hearing devices. In New Zealand, the New Zealand Audiological Society sets membership standards and maintains a directory.

The nerve that carries signals from the cochlea to the brain.

A hearing aid style where the case sits behind the ear and sound travels through a tube into an earmould or dome in the ear canal.

A system for people with very limited hearing on one side and some hearing loss on the other. A microphone on the poorer side routes sound across, and the better ear is also amplified.

A small custom hearing aid style that sits well inside the ear canal.

A system that routes sound from an ear with little usable hearing across to the better-hearing ear, which needs no amplification of its own.

The spiral, fluid-filled part of the inner ear that converts vibration into nerve signals.

A surgically implanted device considered for some people with severe or profound hearing loss that hearing aids do not adequately address. Assessed through a specialist pathway.

Hearing loss where something in the outer or middle ear stops sound reaching the inner ear — for example wax or fluid.

The unit used to describe how loud a sound is. On an audiogram, higher decibel numbers mean a sound had to be louder before it was heard.

An arrangement of more than one microphone that allows a device to favour sound arriving from one direction over another.

A small, ready-made soft tip that sits in the ear canal on some hearing aids, as an alternative to a custom earmould.

A soft mould taken of the ear and ear canal, used to make custom earmoulds, hearing aid shells or ear plugs.

The membrane at the end of the ear canal that vibrates when sound reaches it.

A custom-made piece, produced from an ear impression, that seats a hearing aid in the ear.

The whistling sound that occurs when amplified sound escapes and is picked up again by the microphone.

How high or low a sound is, measured in hertz (Hz). On an audiogram, frequency runs left to right.

A common childhood condition in which fluid collects behind the eardrum, interrupting sound on its way to the inner ear.

A small tube placed in the eardrum to help ventilate the middle ear. Some specialists advise keeping water out of the ears afterwards.

The smallest custom hearing aid style, sitting deepest in the ear canal.

A custom hearing aid style seated in the opening of the ear canal.

A custom hearing aid style that fills the bowl of the outer ear.

A method of removing ear wax using gentle suction under magnification, without flushing water into the ear.

Hearing loss with both a conductive and a sensorineural component at the same time.

The handheld instrument with a light used to look into the ear canal and at the eardrum.

Describes substances, including some medicines, that can affect hearing or balance.

The visible outer part of the ear, which collects sound and directs it into the ear canal.

The clinical term for age-related hearing loss.

In a hearing aid, the small speaker that delivers sound into the ear canal. In receiver-in-canal devices it sits in the canal itself.

A hearing aid style with a small case behind the ear and the receiver sitting in the ear canal, joined by a thin wire.

Hearing loss involving the inner ear or the hearing nerve. The most common type of permanent hearing loss in adults.

A component that picks up a magnetic signal from a hearing loop rather than sound through the air.

The experience of hearing a sound, such as ringing or buzzing, with no external source.

A test of how the eardrum and middle ear respond to pressure changes, used to help identify conductive causes.
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Where to read more

Start with hearing loss explained for how hearing works and what can change, or hearing aids explained for what the devices are and how they are fitted.

If you want your own hearing checked

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This page is general information. A hearing test measures your own hearing and is the only way to know where yours sits.

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Sources

This page is general information, not a diagnosis or individual advice.