phone tapper

8.9

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

noun

: 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

9 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

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

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

How Invasive

spy

596 2.9

phone tapper

8.9

eavesdropper

4 6.1

listener

279 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').