Thesaurus results for WIRETAPPING

wiretapping 1 of 2

noun

as in eavesdropping

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wiretapping

2 of 2

verb

present participle of wiretap

as in tapping

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Example Sentences

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.

Recent Examples of wiretapping

Noun

Lawrence, Massachusetts, Mayor Brian DePeña, who is already facing unrelated federal criminal charges, was arraigned Tuesday on more than a dozen state wiretapping charges. — Matt Schooley, CBS News, 13 Oct. 2026 Later that year, he was charged with wiretapping, and although authorities did not offer more details, local journalists have reported that the alleged wiretapping was meant to monitor the investigation of his mother. — James Lasdun, New Yorker, 26 May 2026 Under the plan, FISA, which allows warrantless wiretapping of noncitizens, would be extended for three years, with new oversight guardrails and penalties for abusing the spy tool. — Hailey Bullis, The Washington Examiner, 26 Apr. 2026 Michael Gagnon was charged with unlawful wiretapping and violating an abuse prevention order. — Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald, 14 Apr. 2026 The two men planted themselves at the bedside of the ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft to block Bush administration officials from making an end run to get Ashcroft’s permission to reauthorize a secret no-warrant wiretapping program. — Eric Tucker, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2026 In the decades since, multiple presidents have relied on that congressional mandate to justify a grab bag of military counterterrorism activities, including the detention of people who had not been convicted of a crime at Guantanamo Bay and the secret wiretapping of Americans. — Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA Today, 4 Mar. 2026 So prosecutors are being forced to try other methods to establish who fired the gun, including phone tracing, interviews and wiretapping. — Chas Newkey-Burden, TheWeek, 22 Feb. 2026 Past disputes have included Australian intelligence wiretapping accusations involving Indonesia's former president, the execution of Australian drug smugglers and tensions over people smuggling. — Niniek Karmini, Arkansas Online, 8 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for wiretapping

Noun

Many state wiretap and eavesdropping laws are written around whether a private communication was intercepted or its contents were acquired — not simply whether a conventional audio recording was created.

— MacKenzie Sigalos,Annie Palmer, CNBC, 18 Oct. 2026
OpenAI’s forthcoming device, rumored to be a portable smart speaker, could encounter similar eavesdropping concerns.

— Sebastian Herrera, Fortune, 24 Sep. 2026

Definition of eavesdropping

Verb

The couple were sold, tapping Buck without interviewing anyone else.

— Elizabeth Fazzare, Architectural Digest, 22 Oct. 2026
As a Canadian company, Abrupt has a track record in international co-productions, production financing and tapping tax incentives and other soft money subsidies to get its documentaries made.

— Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of tapping

Noun

Cellphone records and surveillance footage helped investigators track Fagan’s movements.

— Milena Malaver, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2026
Police said surveillance video showed one of the shooters chase down and fire at one of the victims, then both suspects were seen climbing privacy fences along Lockridge Avenue, according to court documents.

— Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of surveillance

Verb

The Department of Justice’s prosecution of a Saudi national for allegedly bugging an OpenAI conference room is causing anxiety among OpenAI employees, many of whom are foreign nationals.

— Benjamin Guggenheim, Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2026
On Monday, a court granted the US government’s request to deny release of a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a top-secret conference room to steal the frontier lab’s secrets.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of bugging

Noun

The upgrade comes amid growing interest in unmanned systems that can deliver flexible surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities without requiring extensive infrastructure.

— Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 28 Oct. 2026
In April, Russia launched a fleet of small satellites into an orbit close to a commercial radar remote sensing satellite owned by ICEYE that provides reconnaissance imagery to Ukraine.

— Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of reconnaissance

Verb

The actress provided the voice of a technologically advanced, data-spying smart refrigerator.

— ABC News, ABC News, 22 Oct. 2026
To support their request to detain Alfozan, the government pointed to a case where former Twitter employees were charged with spying for the Saudi government.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of spying

Noun

The speech included observations that were hawkish on inflation, mindful of the real economy, and posed questions about the promise of artificial intelligence.

— Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2026
Over the decades, Ernaux has examined class shame through close observation of her parents’ lives, accounted for all-consuming romantic obsession, and transcribed fleeting encounters in supermarkets and trains in the Paris suburbs.

— Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of observation

Verb

Potential industrial applications This was then used to tell the robot’s limbs what moves to make, all the while monitoring the cube’s state to check and correct for errors.

— Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 25 Oct. 2026
Use strong antivirus protection Strong antivirus software adds another layer of protection by monitoring suspicious behavior and detecting threats that may go unnoticed.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of monitoring

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Style

“Wiretapping.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wiretapping. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of wiretapping

noun

verb

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