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Eavesdropping vs Overhearing - What's the difference?

eavesdropping | overhearing |

As verbs the difference between eavesdropping and overhearing

is that eavesdropping is present participle of lang=en while overhearing is present participle of overhear.

As nouns the difference between eavesdropping and overhearing

is that eavesdropping is listening secretly to private conversation of others while overhearing is the act by which something is overheard.

eavesdropping

English

Verb

(head)

    • Noun

    (wikipedia eavesdropping) (en noun)
  • Listening secretly to private conversation of others.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne
    • , title=Well Tackled! , chapter=7 citation , passage=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 had to do it, and this was one of them.}}
  • (telecoms ) The interception of electronic communication.

    • overhearing

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act by which something is overheard.
  • * 2006 , Amy Shuman, Storytelling Rights (page 25)
    • Where overhearings were intended, as in conversations that girls wanted boys to overhear, the speaker often directed her gaze at the boy who was supposed to overhear while turning her mouth toward the ear of the listener.