eavesdropping (on)

present participle of eavesdrop (on)
as in listening in (on)
to listen to (another in private conversation) a nosy traveler who likes to eavesdrop on his fellow airline passengers

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for eavesdropping (on)
Verb
  • Researchers at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology are monitoring signals of magma movement within the Earth's crust to detect when the next eruption at Etna is imminent, according to a paper published in Science earlier this month.
    Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 22 Oct. 2025
  • These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites.
    Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 22 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Dubai Reuters — An Iranian lower court handed heavy prison sentences to two French citizens charged with spying for France and Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, a week after Paris and Tehran indicated progress in talks to release them.
    CNN Money, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Depending on your age and foreign language ability, fulfilling your James Bond spy fantasies may not be very realistic—but spying for the British government just got more accessible.
    PC Magazine, PC Magazine, 21 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • The escape was initially revealed on Sunday by Guatemala’s director of prisons, who said that prison officials had only detected the scheme — in which inmates may have slipped out one by one, or in pairs — after hearing rumors and checking inmates’ biometric data.
    New York Times, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
  • According to the report, Rush wanted to continue dives even after hearing the bang.
    Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 16 Oct. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Eavesdropping (on).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/eavesdropping%20%28on%29. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!