espionage
/ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/
espionage noun: the act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means.
Noun
espionage (countable and uncountable, plural espionages)
- The act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means.
- So intolerable did Heavy Benson's espionage become, that Raynham would have grown depopulated of its womankind had not Adrian interfered, who pointed out to the Baronet what a fearful arm his butler was wielding.1859, George Meredith, chapter 16, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
- The results of this investigation to date indicate that there is probable cause to believe that, beginning in 1985 and continuing to the present, ROBERT PHILIP HANSSEN (hereinafter “HANSSEN”), a United States citizen, has conspired […] to commit espionage against the United States on behalf of a...2001 February, Stefan A. Pluta, “United States of America v. Robert Philip Hanssen: Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, Arrest Warrant and Search Warrants”, in United States District Court...
- Synonyms:
- spying
espionage meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
espionage in Hindi
- act of learning secret information through clandestine means
- गुप्तचर्या guptacaryā, जासूसी jāsūsī, चारवृत्ति cārvŕtti
espionage in Tamil
- ஒற்றறிதல், வேவுபார்த்தல், உளவியல்
espionage in Marathi
- गुप्तहेरगिरी
espionage in Urdu
- act of learning secret information through clandestine means
- جاسُوسی jāsūsī
More languagesFewer languages
- espionage in Bengali
- গুপ্তচরবৃত্তি guptocrobritti
- espionage in Telugu
- వేగు vēgu
- espionage in Malayalam
- ചാരവൃത്തി, ചാരവേല, ചാരപ്പണി, ചാരചേവകം
- espionage in Kannada
- ಬೇಹುಗಾರಿಕೆ, ಬೇಗುಗಾರಿಕೆ, ಗೂಢಚರ್ಯೆ, ಗೂಢಚಾರಿಕೆ
- espionage in Odia
- ଗୁପ୍ତଚରବୃତ୍ତି
- espionage in Pashto
- جاسوسي jāsūsī
- espionage in Tagalog
- pagbatyaw, espiyonahe
- espionage in Arabic
- تَجَسُّس tajassus, جَاسُوسِيَّة jāsūsiyya
- espionage in Malay
- pengintipan
- espionage in Indonesian
- spionase, pengintaian
- espionage in Thai
- จารกรรม jaa-rá-gam
- espionage in Vietnamese
- hoạt động tình báo
Examples of espionage in a sentence
- They really oiled him up last night, planning to get him to talk, but he'd been well warned about industrial espionage, and he kept his cool.
- "Gray man" is an espionage term describing the "perfect" covert operator.
- From Ian Fleming to John Le Carre - authors have long been fascinated by the world of espionage.
Synonyms of espionage
Forms of espionage
| plural | espionages |
|---|
Origin of espionage
Recorded since 1793, from French espionnage, from espionner (“to spy”), from Middle French espionner (“to spy”), from espion (“spy”), from Old French espion (“spy”), from Frankish *spehō (“spy”), from Frankish *spehōn (“to spy”), from Proto-Germanic *spehōną (“to spy, peek, peer”). In modern times, the French pronunciation of the s, which had fallen silent since the 13th century, was restored due to the influence of Italian spione (“spy”), and was therefore also adopted by the English. More at spy.
Words formed from espionage
Questions about espionage
- What does espionage mean?
- Espionage means the act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means.
- What is espionage in Hindi?
- Espionage in Hindi is गुप्तचर्या (guptacaryā), जासूसी (jāsūsī), चारवृत्ति (cārvŕtti). See Espionage meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is espionage?
- Espionage is a noun.
- How do you pronounce espionage?
- Espionage is pronounced /ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/.
- What is the plural of espionage?
- The plural of espionage is espionages.
Words near espionage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: espionage (page history and authors); espionage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); espionage (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); espionage (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); espionage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); espionage (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-espionage.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-RGBLionGam3r17-espionage.wav.
Cite this entry: “espionage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/espionage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.