LISTENS IN (ON) Synonyms: 14 Similar Words

listens in (on)

verb

present tense third-person singular of listen in (on)

as in eavesdrops (on)

to listen to (another in private conversation) it's not polite to listen in on other people's private conversations

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for listens in (on)

Verb

Business owners, technology leaders and risk teams need clarity about who owns the process, who determines acceptable risk, who monitors performance and who has the authority to intervene.

— Jayasri Ranganathan, Forbes.com, 29 Sep. 2026
Nvidia also announced Sentry, which monitors agents and runs on network chips, not CPUs or GPUs.

— Kif Leswing, CNBC, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of monitors

Verb

Making the editing process even more complex was the fact that Jamal hears three voices.

— Alex Ritman, Variety, 25 Sep. 2026
Deadline hears that Paramount has agreed to some CNN guardrails, financial penalties linked to CEO David Ellison‘s 30 movies a year commitment, and some sort of separation of the studios for a period.

— Dominic Patten, Deadline, 21 Sep. 2026

Definition of hears

Verb

Late one night, Clark spies what appears to be a sliver of light coming through a crack in the wall of the store’s basement.

— David Fear, Rolling Stone, 14 June 2026
In Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s The Finding of Moses, a dog spies a young girl whose presence unlocks the painting’s meaning.

— Boris Kachka, The Atlantic, 5 June 2026

Definition of spies

Verb

Nathan overhears a snippet of this exchange, which convinces him that Joe is engaged in an all-out smear campaign against him.

— Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 1 Sep. 2026
At one point, Piker overhears his brother telling me about his old job as an aerospace engineer at Boeing.

— Josh Eells, Rolling Stone, 9 Aug. 2026

Definition of overhears

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.

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listens

listens in (on)

listens (to)

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“Listens in (on).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/listens%20in%20%28on%29. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of listens in (on)

verb

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