informant
Other forms: informants
An informant is someone who secretly provides information to police, the FBI, or another law enforcement agency. If you watch a lot of crime shows on TV, you're probably familiar with informants.
In the world of law enforcement, informants are officially called CIs, for "confidential informant" or "criminal informant." The information informants provide can be useful in catching criminals, and the informant usually gets something in return — money or a reduced prison sentence, for example. Sometimes informant simply means "person who gives information."
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a person who supplies informationsynonyms: sourcetypes:betrayer, blabber, informer, rat, squealerone who reveals confidential information in return for moneyleakera surreptitious informantpassive sourcean informant who is not assigned to obtain specific intelligence but who routinely passes on whatever information he or she haswhistle blower, whistle-blower, whistlebloweran informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping itcanary, fink, sneak, sneaker, snitch, snitcher, stool pigeon, stoolie, stoolpigeonsomeone acting as an informer or decoy for the policetype of:communicatora person who communicates with others
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someone who sees an event and reports what happenedtypes:type of:beholder, observer, perceiver, percipienta person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the sensesspeaker, talker, utterer, verbaliser, verbalizersomeone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous)
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Vocabulary lists containing informant
This nonfiction account of the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery is richly illustrated with archival photographs.
This list covers "The Spider Man Behind Spider-Man," "Over the Top: The True Adventures of a Volcano Chaser," "Interview with a Songcatcher," "Kabul’s Singing Sensation," "Robo-Legs," and "Eureka: Scientific Twists of Fate."