Word.ws English Dictionary

eavesdropping

US/ˈivsˌdɹɒ.piŋ/

eavesdropping noun: listening secretly to the private conversations of others. Also the present participle and gerund of eavesdrop.

Noun

eavesdropping (countable and uncountable, plural eavesdroppings)

  1. Listening secretly to the private conversations of others.
    • The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he...1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!, →OL
  2. The interception of electronic communication.
  3. The act of one organism listening for another's calls, so as to exploit them.

Also used as

eavesdropping is also the present participle and gerund of eavesdrop.

eavesdropping meaning in Arabic and Persian

eavesdropping in Arabic

listening secretly to the private conversations of others
تَنَصُّت tanaṣṣut, اِسْتِرَاق سَمْع istirāq samʕ
interception of electronic communication
تَنَصُّت tanaṣṣut

eavesdropping in Persian

listening secretly to the private conversations of others
استراق سمع esterâq-e sam'
interception of electronic communication
استراق سمع esterâq-e sam'

Synonyms of eavesdropping

Forms of eavesdropping

pluraleavesdroppings

Origin of eavesdropping

From eavesdrop + -ing.

Words formed from eavesdropping

Questions about eavesdropping

What does eavesdropping mean?
Eavesdropping means listening secretly to the private conversations of others.
What is eavesdropping in Arabic?
Eavesdropping in Arabic is تَنَصُّت (tanaṣṣut), اِسْتِرَاق سَمْع (istirāq samʕ). See Eavesdropping meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is eavesdropping?
Eavesdropping is a noun.
How do you pronounce eavesdropping?
Eavesdropping is pronounced /ˈivsˌdɹɒ.piŋ/ (US).
What is the plural of eavesdropping?
The plural of eavesdropping is eavesdroppings.

Words near eavesdropping in the dictionary

  1. eavesdrips
  2. eavesdrop
  3. eavesdropped
  4. eavesdropper
  5. eavesdroppers
  6. eavesdropping
  7. eavesdroppingly
  8. eavesdroppings
  9. eavesdrops
  10. eavesread
  11. eavesreading

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eavesdropping (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-eavesdropping.wav.

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