spying
/ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/
spying is the present participle and gerund of spy.
Meaning of spy
Verb
spy (third-person singular simple present spies, present participle spying, simple past and past participle spied)
- To act as a spy.
- During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.
- To spot; to catch sight of; to espy.
- I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.
- To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
- (As I confeſſe it is my Natures plague / To ſpy into Abuſes, and of my iealouſie / Shapes faults that are not)c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To explore; to see; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.
Noun
spying (countable and uncountable, plural spyings)
- espionage; the act of secretly gathering information
- There are two ways in which the obsessive character of jealousy tends to exert itself: one is in the need to know, the endless tests and investigations and spyings that are so characteristic of jealousy.1980, Amélie Rorty, Explaining Emotions, page 472
Forms of spying
| plural | spyings |
|---|
Origin of spying
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Inherited from Middle English spyinge, spiyng, spyeng, equivalent to spy + -ing.
Words formed from spying
Phrases with spying
Words that rhyme with spying
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- bespying
- buying
- clying
- complying
- decrying
- defying
- denying
- descrying
- dyeing
- espying
- forbuying
- frying
- goodbyeing
- high-flying
- highing
- implying
- lyeing
- lying
- mistrying
- nighing
- outvying
- pieing
- plying
- prying
- rebuying
- redyeing
- refrying
- relying
- replying
- retrying
- retying
- scrying
- shanghaiing
- shying
- sighing
- skying
- speed flying
- stying
- supplying
- thighing
- unbuying
- uncrying
- undrying
- undyeing
- undying
- unflying
- unfrying
- unlying
Questions about spying
- What does spying mean?
- Spying means espionage; the act of secretly gathering information.
- What is spying the present participle and gerund of?
- Spying is the present participle and gerund of spy.
- What part of speech is spying?
- Spying is a noun.
- How do you pronounce spying?
- Spying is pronounced /ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of spying?
- The plural of spying is spyings.
Words near spying in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spying (page history and authors); spy (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-spying.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.