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up vote 13 down vote favorite

If the adjective relating to the nose is nasal then what is the adjective relating to the ear?

I don't think it's "aural". I think it begins with ot-.

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1  
Easel sounds right - "Nose is to nasal, as ear is to easel" - but means a painters support. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Sep 6 '11 at 16:03
At the risk of muddying the waters even more on this one, let's not forget rhinal and rhinarial. I'm sure millions of people would get those just because of Tom's Rhinoplasty on South Park. – FumbleFingers Sep 7 '11 at 23:06

4 Answers

up vote 19 down vote

I suppose the word you are looking for specifically, is "otic":

of, relating/pertaining to, or located near the ear

One could therefore say: "Nose" is to "nasal", as "ear" is to "otic."

Additionally, although "aural" is commonly associated with "sound", "aural" can also be used to refer to pertaining to the ear:

of or pertaining to the ear.

This can be compared to "nasal":

Of or pertaining to the nose.

One could therefore also say: "Nose" is to "nasal", as "ear" is to "aural"

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14  
Nose:nasal:olfactory, Ear:otic:aural. It depends on whether you're talking about the sense organ itself, or the type of stimulus it responds to. – FumbleFingers Sep 6 '11 at 11:29
+1 otic is correct. If you have seasonal allergies, you get a nasal spray. If you get "Swimmer's ear," you can go to the pharmacy and get otic drops. – rajah9 Sep 6 '11 at 13:38
Just with the proviso that "otic" is quite a rare word. One other word that you can often use in compounds to mean "pertaining to the ear" is... "ear". – Neil Coffey Sep 6 '11 at 14:36
@FumbleFingers: That is strange. Going by the Latin, these words should have the following meanings: nasal = of the nose; olfactory = smelling; otic = of the ear (from Greek ous, "ear"); aural = of the ear (slightly malformed, from Latin auris, "ear"). I'd say olfactory ~ auditory/auditive. – Cerberus Sep 6 '11 at 14:49
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@Fumble: I agree on both accounts! Especially the on-going battle against the evils of vague spiritualism strike a chord. To clarity! And rationalism! I'm slightly tipsy now, but you may keep me to it in the morning. – Cerberus Sep 8 '11 at 0:16
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up vote 8 down vote

I suggest using "auricular":

Of, relating to, or using the ear or the sense of hearing.

Like "nasal", which is derived from Latin "nasus" (nose), "auricular" is also derived from Latin "auricula" (ear). However, "otic" has a Greek root.

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Auricular is often used in biological/medical contexts, and might well be preferred for "everyday" use on the grounds that it's likely to be understood by more people than will know otic. If only because they can extend from the less-than-ideal aural, which they might know purely because they've learned to watch out for that one in case of confusion with oral. – FumbleFingers Sep 7 '11 at 23:02
up vote 1 down vote

Depending on the context, "auditory" might be the right word. For example "auditory canal" would be analogous to "nasal passages".

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up vote 0 down vote

Auditory is your word.

au·di·to·ry/ˈôdiˌtôrē/

Adjective
Of or relating to the sense of hearing: "the auditory nerves".

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