double agent

American  

noun

1. a person who spies on a country while pretending to spy for it.

2. a spy in the service of two rival countries, companies, etc.

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double agent British  

noun

1. a spy employed by two mutually antagonistic countries, companies, etc

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Etymology

Origin of double agent

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Think of Mike Buckley as a kind of double agent.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 2, 2026

And in 2018, the UK said Russian double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in the British cathedral city of Salisbury.

From Barron's • Jan. 15, 2026

One police officer, Evelyn Tardiff, has long served as a double agent within the mobster’s circle, and Armand has grown unsure of her loyalties, fearing that “he no longer knew whose side she was on.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

At the time of his work as a double agent, his defection was hailed by then Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe as "a very substantial coup for our security forces".

From BBC • Mar. 21, 2025

Ironically, amid such intense suspicion of the British, no one seemed to take note of the double agent inside the KGB's London residency.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

Related Words

• undercover agent