spy

spy — noun

1. a person whose job is to secretly obtain information about a foreign government,

1.nounB2
Definition

a person whose job is to secretly obtain information about a foreign government, company, or group, often for political or military purposes

Example

A suspected spy was watching the naval base from a nearby apartment.

collocation: suspected spy

Anong worked as a spy for ten years before retiring to a quiet village.

Common collocations
  • spy network
  • spy agency
  • foreign spy
  • enemy spy
  • spy ring
  • spy film
Synonyms
  • agent

    broader term; can refer to any person working for an intelligence service, not necessarily in secret

  • double agent

    a spy who works for two opposing sides at the same time

  • mole

    a spy who works inside an organization for years, often trusted by their targets

  • informant

    someone who gives information to authorities, usually not employed as a professional spy

Usage Note

Frequently appears in compound nouns such as spy film, spy novel, and spy agency to describe things related to espionage.

Common Mistakes

He works as a spy for the police' (assuming any secret watcher is a spy).
He works as an undercover officer for the police.
'spy' usually refers to someone working for a foreign government or rival organization, not domestic law enforcement.

spy — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Agent is the broadest of these terms and can refer to any person employed by an intelligence service, whether openly or in secret — an FBI agent is not necessarily a spy. A double agent is a specific type of spy who pretends to work for one side while actually working for its enemy, creating layers of deception. Mole describes a spy who infiltrates an organization and remains in place for years, often rising to a trusted position before being discovered. An informant, by contrast, is usually not a professional: a citizen who reports suspicious activity to the police is an informant, not a spy. For example, a journalist might be an informant for the authorities without ever considering herself a spy. Spy remains the most direct everyday word for someone engaged in secret intelligence work.

agent ↗double agentmole ↗informant

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • spy on someone
  • spy for a country
  • spy into a place

Prepositions

Etymology

FrankishOld FrenchEnglish

The word 'spy' entered English from Old French 'espier', meaning 'to watch or observe closely'. That French verb came from a Frankish (Germanic) word *spehōn, which is related to the modern German 'spähen' (to peer or scan). The noun form appeared in English around the 1200s, referring to a person sent to secretly gather information. The sense of 'catching sight of' (verb sense 3) developed later in the 1500s and was originally spelled 'espy' before the 'e' dropped off over time.