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wiretap

/ˈwaɪɚtæp/noun, verb

wiretap is a noun meaning “A connection installed on a telephone line or other communications system in order to allow a third party to conduct covert surveillance of…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled W-I-R-E-T-A-P and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of wiretap is wiretaps.

What does wiretap mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A connection installed on a telephone line or other communications system in order to allow a third party to conduct covert surveillance of conversations.

verb

  1. 1

    To install or to use such a connection.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce wiretap?

  • UK /ˈwaɪətæp/
  • US /ˈwaɪɚtæp/

Wiretap has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-wiretap.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of wiretap

  • wiretaps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • wiretapping participle, present
  • wiretapped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is wiretap?

Wiretap appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with wiretap

Also written: wire-tap (one word or two).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Wiretap in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmouchard, micro, écoute (covert connection), poser un mouchard, un micro, mettre sur écoute (to install or to use such a device)
GermanWanze (covert connection), verwanzen (to install or to use such a device)
Portuguesegrampo (covert connection), grampear (to install or to use such a device)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.