shema

This word is built straight from the verb "to hear," and it names the thing that gets heard. In most of its uses that thing is information traveling from one person to another: a report, a piece of news, tidings that arrive and set people reacting. Laban hears the news that his nephew has come; the king of Babylon hears the report of an approaching enemy and his hands go limp.

The same word slides naturally from a single piece of news into the steady reputation a person or nation carries. When the queen of Sheba comes because she has heard "the report of Solomon," it is his fame, everything people say about him, not one message. The line between the two is thin, which is why one Hebrew word covers both, and why English needs "report" or "news" in one verse and "fame" or "renown" in the next.

Often what is heard is the reputation of God himself: the surrounding nations have heard "the report of" the Lord, and Job confesses he had known God only "by the hearing of the ear" before he finally saw. A near-relative, שְׁמוּעָה, is the more common word for a report or rumor; this one leans toward the fame that spreads about a person.

In one place the word steps away from "news" and means plain audible sound. In the closing praise of the Psalms, the worshiper is called to praise God with cymbals of "sound," set in parallel with cymbals of loud blasting. Here the noun keeps only the root idea of "what the ear takes in," but the thing heard is a noise, not a message.

This use is rare and rests on a single verse, so it sits a little apart from the word's ordinary meaning as a report.