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Glite Dictionary
phone tapper

phone tapper

8.9
A person who secretly listens to other people's phone calls
  • noun
translation icon : interceptor de llamadas
  • The police arrested a suspected phone tapper who had been monitoring private calls for months.

Examples

  • She hired a security expert to check for any phone tapper activity on her business lines.

  • Modern encryption makes it much harder for a phone tapper to eavesdrop undetected.

  • The phone tapper was caught by the police.

  • Many phone tappers operate without any legal consequences.

  • Modern encryption makes it much harder for a phone tapper to eavesdrop undetected.

  • The police arrested a suspected phone tapper who had been monitoring private calls for months.

  • She hired a security expert to check for any phone tapper activity on her business lines.

Synonyms

snoop
vsphone tapper
26 7.4

A person who secretly looks for other people's private information

is about covert telephone-line listening rather than general information seeking
eavesdropper
vsphone tapper
4 6.1

A person who secretly listens to other people's private conversations

specifies listening via an electronic telephone connection rather than general secret listening
snooper
vsphone tapper
3 7.4

A person who secretly tries to find out about other people's private things

focuses specifically on listening through a telephone line, not general prying
wiretapper
vsphone tapper
1 8.6

A person who secretly listens to other people's phone calls with a hidden device

is limited to electronic connection on a telephone line specifically
tapper
vsphone tapper
  • Archaic
1 8.9

A person who secretly listens to other people's phone calls

focuses on electronic listening through a telephone line rather than general interception

How Invasive

spy
623 2.9
phone tapper
8.9
eavesdropper
4 6.1
listener
228 1.0

Surface Forms

phone tapper singular
phone tappers plural

Morphology

phone + tapper

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'phone' (telephone device) with 'tapper' (one who taps or listens clandestinely): a person who taps phones. This compound follows a productive, cross-linguistically common pattern (e.g., 'phone tap', 'wiretapper'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Phone tapper comes from the image of putting a small 'tap' on a phone line so someone can hear private conversations. So a phone tapper is a tapper who secretly listens to phone calls ('to listen secretly').