listening post

English

Noun

listening post (plural listening posts)

1. (military) A position established for the purpose of detecting the enemy's movements by means of listening.
2. A facility established to monitor radio and microwave signals and analyse their content to secure information and intelligence for use by the security and diplomatic community and others.
   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nepmos:

     Shepard: Why are you out here in the first place?
     Lieutenant Durand: There's been a lot of pirate activity in this cluster. We set up a chain of listening posts in the local systems in case they have a staging base.

3. Any location frequented by a journalist in search of stories or gossip.
   • 1945, Elmo Scott Watson, Jobs in Rural Journalism, page 25:

     He probably has "listening posts" which he visits regularly in search of stray items of news. These may be the general store, the barber shop, the ministers' homes, the Chamber of Commerce and the local or state police headquarters.

   • 1963, Loren Fessler, The Editors of LIFE, “About the Writer”, in China (LIFE World Library)‎^[1], New York: Time Incorporated, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 4:

     The British crown colony of Hong Kong is the West's primary listening post for information on Red China, which does not grant entry visas to many foreigners.

   • 2000, APME Journalism Studies, page 17:

     Students discover "listening posts" within the community and produce stories from community voices […]

Synonyms

• (intelligence facility): listening station

Translations

position to detect enemy's movements by listening

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: kuulovartio
• German: Lauschposten m, Horchposten (de) m
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

facility established to monitor radio and microwave signals

• Finnish: kuunteluasema
• French: poste d’écoute m
• German: Horchposten (de) m, Abhörposten m, Abhörstelle f, Funkabhörstelle f

Further reading

• “listening post”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “listening post”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “listening post”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “listening post” (US) / “listening post” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.