King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “eavesdrop”

窃听
qiè tīng
Traditional: 竊聽
to eavesdrop; to wiretap

The closest CC-CEDICT match for eavesdrop is 窃听 (qiè tīng), defined as: to eavesdrop; to wiretap.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

窃 qiè
to steal; thief; secret, stealthy
radical 116 ⽳ · 9 strokes
听 tīng
to hear, to listen; to understand; to obey
radical 30 ⼝ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “eavesdrop”

WordPinyinMeaning
偷听 (偷聽)tōu tīngto eavesdrop; to monitor (secretly)
监听 (監聽)jiān tīngto monitor; to listen in; to eavesdrop
侦听 (偵聽)zhēn tīngto eavesdrop; to tap (telephone conversations)
听墙根 (聽牆根)tīng qiáng gēnto eavesdrop; to listen in secret to sb's conversations

Related words

Other words that share a character with 窃听.

WordPinyinMeaning
盗窃 (盜竊)dào qièto steal
窃取 (竊取)qiè qǔto steal (usu. private information, intellectual property etc)
偷窃 (偷竊)tōu qièto steal; to pilfer
剽窃 (剽竊)piāo qièto plunder; to plagiarize
窃贼 (竊賊)qiè zéithief
听到 (聽到)tīng dàoto hear
听说 (聽說)tīng shuōto hear (sth said); one hears (that)
听见 (聽見)tīng jiànto hear

See also: Japanese symbol for “eavesdrop”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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