as in hearing
to listen to (another in private conversation)
it's not polite to try to overhear intimate friends sharing confidences
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of overhearing
The celebratory July 4 meal would certainly have kept the innkeeper, Daniel Smith, busy replenishing the finest bottles of Madeira from behind the locked bar—perhaps overhearing snippets of chatter among the delegates.
—
Victoria Flexner, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025
In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly about reuniting with Home Improvement costar Tim Allen, 72, on Shifting Gears, Dunning recalled overhearing Allen entertaining the idea of bringing Pamela Anderson back to the series in some capacity.
—Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
Victoria Flexner, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025
In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly about reuniting with Home Improvement costar Tim Allen, 72, on Shifting Gears, Dunning recalled overhearing Allen entertaining the idea of bringing Pamela Anderson back to the series in some capacity.
—Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for overhearing
Verb
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Nevertheless, after hearing that exchange, my Athletic colleague Ken Rosenthal tracked down the manager himself to explore this very topic.—
Jayson Stark,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
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Even after hearing that member's most candid review of the experience, Willmore admits that his younger self still longed to be a part of Greek life.—
Zoey Lyttle,
PEOPLE,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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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
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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
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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
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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
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There also are characters straight from the David Lynch school of the bizarre, including the menacing figure who warns Ron to stop snooping around and the bearer of a disturbing story about a manufacturing job that requires being nude.—
Julie Hinds,
Freep.com,
10 Oct. 2025
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As Mercury and Pluto clash, snooping in someone’s business lands you in hot water.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
7 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Overhearing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overhearing. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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