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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for overhearing
Verb
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In that incident, two men allegedly fired into an apartment building from the lot after hearing gunshots nearby and observing a green laser on one man’s daughter.—
PJ Green,
Kansas City Star,
12 Sep. 2025 -
But where the book ends with David hearing a hopeful message on the radio, the movie has the tank run out.—
James Grebey,
Time,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Iran has executed a man accused of spying for Israel, Iranian state media reported, after the rights group Amnesty International said the man, Babak Shahbazi, had been sentenced to death in an unfair trial marred by allegations of torture.—
Robert Birsel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
17 Sep. 2025
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In a December 2023 Slate editorial, security researcher Bruce Schneier warned that AI models could enable unprecedented mass spying by automating the analysis and summarization of vast conversation datasets.—
Benj Edwards,
ArsTechnica,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Mounted officers and sniffer dogs patrolled the streets near Windsor and Eton Central railway station, monitoring arrivals and maintaining security around the historic town.—
Amanda Castro
Hannah Parry
Shane Croucher
Jack Royston,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Sep. 2025
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Shaun Maguire, Sequoia partner Lahav and cofounder Omer Nevo, who was monitoring and predicting wildfires at Google before starting Irregular, launched the company in mid-2023, just as AI tools like ChatGPT were hitting the mainstream.—
Thomas Brewster,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Potential trouble arises when the wily victim of Danny’s, Pauline, starts snooping around the house, hears Danny’s voice and starts to bargain for her silence.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
6 Sep. 2025
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In the film, Shy is played by Jay Lycurgo, an alternately sensitive and intimidating young actor in his breakout role, and the bag doesn’t appear until midway through, when the film crew go snooping without permission in the students’ room.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
6 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Overhearing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overhearing. Accessed 19 Sep. 2025.
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