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
Wayne R. LaFave & Jerold H. IsraelFor 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
Rick RiordanExamples of eavesdropping in a Sentence
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This bucket includes things like GPS navigation satellites, NRO surveillance and eavesdropping platforms, and strategic communications satellites built to survive a nuclear war.
—ArsTechnica, 5 Apr. 2025
On Thursday night, news broke that Trump had also fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, the director of the National Security Agency, the nation’s premiere electronic eavesdropping agency, and head of the Defense Department’s U.S. Cyber Command.
—Josh Meyer, USA Today, 4 Apr. 2025
The same rules that protect quantum transmission against eavesdropping also prohibit a quantum key from being copied without corrupting it.
—IEEE Spectrum, 26 Oct. 2016
Those coordinates can come from any intelligence source: a satellite, a drone, radio eavesdropping or even a human spotter with a pair of binoculars.
—David Axe, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for eavesdropping
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ArsTechnica, 5 Apr. 2025
On Thursday night, news broke that Trump had also fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, the director of the National Security Agency, the nation’s premiere electronic eavesdropping agency, and head of the Defense Department’s U.S. Cyber Command.
—Josh Meyer, USA Today, 4 Apr. 2025
The same rules that protect quantum transmission against eavesdropping also prohibit a quantum key from being copied without corrupting it.
—IEEE Spectrum, 26 Oct. 2016
Those coordinates can come from any intelligence source: a satellite, a drone, radio eavesdropping or even a human spotter with a pair of binoculars.
—David Axe, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for eavesdropping
Cite this Entry
“Eavesdropping.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eavesdropping. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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