eavesdropping

noun

eaves·​drop·​ping ˈēvz-ˌdrä-piŋ 

: the act of secretly listening to something private

Highly sophisticated means of electronic eavesdropping were developed and put into use, largely uncontrolled by the law.

—Wayne R. LaFave & Jerold H. Israel

For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

—Rick Riordan

Examples of eavesdropping in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After Durkin challenged the government’s eavesdropping methods in the case, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2013 held a highly unusual closed-door session with government officials over whether Durkin should be allowed to view confidential surveillance documents. —Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune, 22 July 2025

The psychological manipulation runs deeper than simple eavesdropping. —Cornelia C. Walther, Forbes.com, 4 July 2025

That sort of possible eavesdropping by bad actors has been a concern with public scanner traffic for decades. —Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 July 2025

However, being able to attack such a system with malicious, system-harmful intent is quite different from eavesdropping, which, by necessity, requires the attacker to exfiltrate data from the environment. —Davey Winder, Forbes.com, 13 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1641, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for eavesdropping

• intercropping
• overtopping
• telescoping
• chopping
• copping
• cropping
• dropping
• flopping
• hopping
• lopping
• mopping
• popping