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

Pearsall, a 59-year-old Long Beach resident, is also facing a criminal case with five felony counts of eavesdropping and more than two dozen misdemeanor counts of secretly filming or unlawful dissemination of private recordings. — Sean Emery, Oc Register, 6 Aug. 2026

Kevin Pearsall, 59, of Long Beach, faces five felony counts of eavesdropping, 23 misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful dissemination of private recordings. — Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026

Sandoval is also facing the privacy and emotional distress claims in addition to a separate claim for alleged eavesdropping related to the initial recording. — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2026

With more scientific eavesdropping on sperm whales, the team at Project CETI hopes to translate whale language to the best of our ability and use how humans impact it to help inform conservation policies. — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 22 July 2026

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