as in eavesdropping
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Dissimilar Words
as in gawking
to look long and hard in wonder or surprise
thoughtless drivers pausing on the highway to rubberneck at the accident
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Recent Examples of rubbernecking
Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Feb. 2026
The whole of football is rubbernecking in their direction.
—Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2026
Verb
Instead, Malinin popped his quad axel, the beginning of four minutes that started to feel like rubbernecking a car accident.
—Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Feb. 2026
The whole of football is rubbernecking in their direction.
—Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rubbernecking
Noun
-
Canvasser was arrested Wednesday and charged with unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance, according to police records.—
Sasha Pezenik,
ABC News,
10 Apr. 2026
-
And that communication can be in the open, on a public channel susceptible to eavesdropping.—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
31 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Those are important characteristics for advertisers seeking to make dynamic campaigns for an audience that's grown accustomed to viewing short-form videos on Reels or gawking at cat photos on Facebook and Instagram.—
Jonathan Vanian,
CNBC,
9 Apr. 2026
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On a typical day, the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale reverberates with animal cries and the footfalls of gawking visitors.—
Shi En Kim,
AZCentral.com,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Autocracy always ran through Turkey’s politics and state structure, from Ottoman times to Atatürk’s one-party rule to the long twentieth century of its military interference.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Apr. 2026
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In most households, however, there isn’t enough electromagnetic interference for this to cause a significant problem.—
BestReviews,
Chicago Tribune,
28 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
That's a lot of late nights and early mornings staring at the sky.—
Paul Sutter,
Space.com,
25 Apr. 2026
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What Jaafar does amounts to an elaborate impression instead of an interpretation, re-creating the voice and the famous choreography and otherwise staring blankly into the middle distance when called upon to transmit emotions.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
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One untitled work from 1994 shows a strange monster—a guard bent over, gazing back at us between his own legs, his upside-down grin framed by his jackboots.—
Ben Davis,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
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Even without a treatment booking, guests may cycle through the hydrotherapy circuit—steam, sauna, hot and cold plunge—while gazing at city panoramas.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
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After nearly 12 hours of questioning, his denials changed.—
Mary Murphy,
CBS News,
26 Apr. 2026
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The entire statement, along with the subsequent media questioning, struck me as odd — not because I or anyone else is owed an apology, but because of the lack of clarity and, more importantly, what seems like a lack of genuine remorse.—
Jon Root OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
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With that said, the game has managed to rack up an impressive five million sales in under a month, developing a dedicated fanbase that's been probing and prying at the game's engine, with delightful and sometimes unexpected results.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
16 Apr. 2026
-
Palm Springs Has Still Got It This desert enclave has long been many things at once—a spa town, a sanctuary away from Hollywood's prying eyes, a design capital, a shoo-in for winter sun.—
Jason Sheeler,
Condé Nast Traveler,
20 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rubbernecking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rubbernecking. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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