Word.ws English Dictionary

fifth columns

fifth columns is the plural of fifth column.

Meaning of fifth column

Noun

fifth column (plural fifth columns)

  1. A group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group, such as a nation, to which it is expected to be loyal.
    • The rebels, who in November 1936 had fought to enter and failed, walked in yesterday as troops of the generally recognised Spanish Government, and not a shot was fired at them. The supporters of Franco in the city, the “fifth column” he once spoke of, had been waiting for this moment for more than...1939 March 29, “Madrid gives itself up to Franco”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see fifth, column.

Questions about fifth columns

What is fifth columns the plural of?
Fifth columns is the plural of fifth column.

Words near fifth columns in the dictionary

  1. fifth base
  2. fifth column
  3. fifth columnism
  4. fifth columnist
  5. fifth columnists
  6. fifth columns
  7. fifth cousin
  8. fifth cousins
  9. fifth cranial nerve
  10. fifth cranial nerves
  11. Fifth Cycle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fifth columns (page history and authors); fifth column (page history and authors). 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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