An active listener makes a real effort to understand the person talking, giving full attention in a judgment-free way, not just waiting for their turn to speak.
A coworker vents about a schedule change, and you put your phone down and ask, So what does that mean for your shift?
It is more than hearing, which is just sound reaching your ears. Active listening is paying attention on purpose.
A patient on a double-shift ward admits she is scared about her surgery, and the nurse catches the fear behind the words, nods, and asks, What worries you most about the surgery? The nurse was listening for the real message, not just the words.
So the vendor pushed the launch back two weeks? your manager says, leaning toward you and letting you finish before asking what that means for the launch plan. That pause and that question show they are following you, not waiting to talk.
Hearing is passive. Sound arrives at your ears whether you want it or not, like traffic outside a window. Listening is the deliberate step of making sense of that sound, so an active listener is someone who does that step on purpose.
One caution: the visible habits, like nodding or repeating things back, do not by themselves guarantee the speaker feels heard. The attention behind them is what counts.